Posts

The web seminar promises to be a primer for ways your business can make the most of tax credits and incentives aimed at supporting and encouraging environmentally-forward commerce. It will introduce the available tax incentives for green business including tax credits, grants, depreciation, and deductions and will address eligibility requirements for businesses seeking to apply for the tax incentives. Specifically, it will examine the Energy Production Tax Credit and Energy Investment Tax Credit and explore the option of pursuing a tax-free grant instead of pursuing a tax credit....

There are many single moms out there, including glitzy and glamorous ones. In fact, more than one-third of all American moms – 36% – were unmarried in 2011, according to a Census Bureau report released last week. For young moms 20 to 24, more than 60% were unmarried. Aside from juggling work, child-rearing, and a personal life (that’s well-deserved!), there are a variety of legal issues that single moms are likely to face....

The Treasury Dept. held a forum on Thursday to address how the economy has affected small business. Specifically, the forum addressed how to help small businesses weather the bad economy. ABC News reports that an Obama administration focused on how to increase small business access to financing. In fact, the press release about the forum from the Treasury Dept. details what Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wanted to convey, stating: “Small businesses, in particular, are still facing a very challenging credit environment....

Who knew shopping was this dangerous? Henry Walker found out while reaching for a watermelon in an Alabama Walmart in 2015. Walker’s foot got caught in a wooden pallet on the floor, causing him to fall and shatter his hip. Walker sued Walmart, claiming the retailer should’ve known the pallet was likely to cause an injury and failed to “exercise reasonable care, to maintain and keep its premises in a reasonable safe condition, and to warn the public of unsafe and hazardous conditions....

Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. have received court approval of a $5.7 billion class-action settlement with U.S. merchants over credit-card transaction fees, also known as “swipe fees.” The agreement – the largest class-action antitrust settlement in U.S. history – was announced in the summer of 2012 and ends years of litigation over allegations that swipe fees were improperly fixed. But is this really the end? In addition to giving merchants the right to add a surcharge for customers paying with Visa and MasterCard credit cards, the deal calls for the card firms to pay cash damages to the more than 8 million affected retailers....

Movie buffs can barely contain their excitement for the upcoming all-female “Ghostbusters” reboot. Turns out law enforcement officials in Boston might be thankful for the film as well. A woman who was shoved to the street in Boston on Wednesday passed away yesterday, and officers think they found the person responsible, thanks to a cameraman working on the movie. Who You Gonna Call? According to Suffolk County authorities, the unidentified victim bumped into Tajanetta Downing in Boston’s Chinatown district....

Being an entrepreneur or running a small business means that you have to wear many hats. One of the most important is the marketing and advertising hat. Making sure your potential customers know that you exist and know what you do is essential for any business that wants to survive. So after you’ve done your research on how to reach your target market and you’ve selected the type of advertisement you want to run (print, internet, radio, etc....

Seven people were killed in upstate New York after a runaway trailer collided with a minivan on a rural two-lane highway. The crash happened south of Syracuse about 6 p.m. Wednesday, when a trailer dislodged and crossed the center line, hitting a minivan carrying eight people. Seven people in the minivan, including four children, were killed, the Associated Press reports. While officials have yet to determine what exactly caused the accident, something made the trailer come loose....

Last Friday, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed the controversial Arizona immigration bill into law. Despite President Obama’s comments last week that the bill was a “misguided” attempt to control the state’s problems with illegal immigration, and despite growing protests, the Governor pressed forward. Much of the criticism of the bill centers around the new requirement that police must question anyone they have a reasonable suspicion is in the state illegally. The bill itself does not define what constitutes a reasonable suspicion and the governor says she does not know either....

A Denver man settled his popcorn lung disease lawsuit against FONA International Inc., formerly Flavors of North America Inc. The company produces the diacetyl popcorn butter flavoring in much of our microwave popcorn. The L.A. Times reports that Mr. Wayne Watson is reportedly the first consumer to ever suffer from popcorn lung disease. Mr. Watson claims that he developed popcorn lung disease by eating microwaved popcorn that contained diacetyl popcorn flavoring; which is speculated to cause the disease....

Both online petitions and incidences of identity theft have gone up in the last few years. Could the two be connected? It’s no secret that online petitions require personal information. Most states require a petition signature to include the signer’s legal name and address to verify the validity of the signature. Websites like Change.org are popular for signing online petitions on a variety of topics but many of them are not secure and information sent online is not encrypted....

It’s a victorious, albeit confusing court ruling for gay rights advocates. A three judge panel ruled that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott lacked the standing to appeal a divorce that was granted to a lesbian couple in Austin last year, the Dallas Voice reports. Attorney General Greg Abbott attempted to block the gay divorce by claiming that the judge who granted the divorce lacked the jurisdiction to do so because Texas has a constitutional ban on gay marriage, the Washington Post reports....

The dope game has changed. Since the recent federal decision not to prosecute legal users or providers of medical marijuana, states are scrambling to figure out their new role. According to the Washington Post, the Department of Justice will not focus on those who comply with state and local laws, but instead focus on cases involving higher-level drug traffickers, money launderers or people who use the state laws as a cover....

An Oscar Grant lawsuit against ex-BART police officer Johannes Mehserle and two other officers can proceed, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. In a unanimous three-judge ruling, the court rejected attempts by the Bay Area Rapid Transit police officers to shield themselves from civil liability by asserting qualified immunity. Mehserle shot and killed Grant, an unarmed 22-year-old, on the platform of BART’s Fruitvale Station in Oakland in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 2009....

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country. -Thomas Jefferson Jefferson probably would not have been a fan of the decision of Oakland’s City Council to permit industrial marijuana production. Under the new ordinance, which passed 5-2, four massive marijuana factories would be authorized to grow medical marijuana on an industrial scale....

The Paycheck Fairness Act has been defeated, Forbes reports. Are business owners pleased? Does this mean business owners are out of touch sexists that want to keep women under their thumb? Or is it a sign that affirmative action-like laws are no longer necessary because society is already reasonably fair? Depends on who you ask. Many business owners believe that the failure of the bill is good news for business....

The mystery Powerball winner is taking his or her sweet time to claim the jaw-dropping $590 million jackpot. It may be a wise move – or it may be a gamble, as a some important deadlines are fast approaching. It’s been two weeks since lotto officials announced the winning ticket was purchased in Zephyrhills, Florida, reports the Associated Press. Apparently, no one expected a winner to come forward immediately. But now some are raising their eyebrows....

Shocking video footage from an interrogation tape of two of convicted teenage killers was released Tuesday. The tape shows the police interrogation of 16-year-old Daniel Russell and 16-year old Calvin Pearson, just 3 days after they had broken into the North Sacramento home of a 90-year-old woman and beaten her to death using her cane. On the video, the two kid criminals share a pizza and drink soda while discussing how they attacked the woman in April of 2006....

By the time a couple decides to divorce there have likely been tense conversations and various rounds of blame-game play to identify the marriage’s point-of-no-return. In the midst of going different directions, is it better to file for a fault or no-fault divorce? Fault-based divorce A fault divorce is granted in instances when at least one spouse requests a divorce based on fault and where one of the required grounds is present....

Nobody likes a bad Yelp review. And small businesses definitely don’t like a defamatory Yelp review. And a small law firm faced with a defamatory Yelp review is probably gonna sue. That’s what Dawn Hassell of the Hassell Law Group did in response to a Yelp review that claimed Hassell agreed to represent an injured client, “then reneged on the case because her mom had a broken leg, or something like that, and that the insurance company was too much for her to handle,” adding, “you can find a competent attorney, but this wont [sic] be one of them....