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Whether you resign or are fired, losing a job is never easy. And, it’s not just the loss of income that can be difficult, but also the loss of benefits. For example, deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe was fired just two days before his retirement, which means he’s no longer eligible to receive his full pension. Pensions and other benefits are generally terminated when you’re fired, but there are certain rights that an employee has after his or her job has been terminated....

GlaxoSmithKline’s drug representatives are “salesmen” who aren’t entitled to overtime pay, the U.S. Supreme Court has held in a 5-4 decision. The Glaxo overtime ruling affects about 90,000 drug company representatives who visit doctor’s offices to make pitches for their company’s drugs, The Washington Post reports. Pharmaceutical companies can now save billions of dollars a year by not paying overtime to sales reps. The Court’s ruling turned on whether a drug company representative should be considered an “outside salesman” under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act – a question that divided the Court....

Two major federal government agencies last month issued new guidance for employers on handling employment eligibility verifications for immigration purposes. The guidance highlights the Catch-22 employers face trying to comply with immigration law. Employers are required to check prospective employees’ ability to legally work here, according to federal law, but the government’s guidance urges employers to ensure that their internal audits of this verification process are not discriminatory. This puts employers in a bit of a bind, according to the Washington Examiner....

The plan seemed so simple: refer patients to friendly pharmacies to fill prescriptions they don’t need, then get a nice little kickback from pharmacy owners. Maybe throw some extra pain pill prescriptions to patients without ever seeing them, and bill Medicare for some never-performed medical services. Easy money, right? Well easy come, easy go, as they say, and now Dr. Roberto A. Fernandez will be paying $4.8 million in restitution and serving 97 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud....

As we wrote about in a previous post, small business owners cite healthcare costs as a major hurdle faced by their business. In a National Small Business Association press release, the President of the organization has stated that “The number of small-business owners who are able to provide health insurance to their employees has dropped from 67 percent in 1995 to 38 percent in 2008. NSBA members voted health care reform their number one priority for 111th Congress–addressing the failures of our health care system simply can not wait yet another year....

After a Philadelphia family court judged removed three children from a home with their mother, despite the children’s case manager noting tremendous improvement in the case and recommending the children remain in the home, a Pennsylvania appeals court overturned the decision, and ruled the judge violated the children’s due process rights. And it was not the first time this particular judge’s family court decisions were overturned. While most family court judges are doing their best, and trying to do what’s in the best interests of the children they see, they can make mistakes....

When it comes to personal injury lawsuits, what is a “survival statute” and how could it affect your case? In the vast majority of states, many types of personal injury lawsuits can proceed even after the victim/plaintiff dies. These are called survival actions. Without such a provision, a personal injury case can potentially be dismissed if the victim dies of unrelated causes before the case is resolved. So what are survival actions and how are they different from wrongful death lawsuits?...

Step One: Make sure your great idea makes for a great business. Step Three: Grow the heck out of your business. What’s Step Two? Making sure your startup doesn’t trip up in the meantime. And one of the biggest hurdles most new businesses face is the numbers game involving income, profit, overhead, and expenses. You may have just turned the lights on in your small business, but customers, clients, partners, and investors will want to shine a light on your books....

Is ICE cooling off? The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are offering art classes, bingo and continental breakfast on the weekends at several privately owned detention centers and many immigrant advocates are pleased, the Houston Chronicle reports. The changes are a part of the Obama Administration’s promise to overhaul the nation’s immigration detention system and include relaxing some security measures for low-risk detainees. The goal is to make detention system less penal and more humane, officials said....

Claims for employment discrimination filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 2009 declined slightly from the previous year, but still were at the second-highest level in the agency’s nearly 45-year history, as reported by the AP. The year in which the most claims were filed was 2008. The total number of disability discrimination claims received by the EEOC last year was 93,000. As with most years, discrimination claims based on race (36 percent), sex and retaliation were the most prevalent....

Is the new iPad too hot? Some consumers think so. Apple fan forums are being inundated with complaints about the new high-powered device. Some users claim the backside of the iPad is “uncomfortably warm” while others say it’s too hot to hold. One Dutch website even claims the new iPad is almost 10 degrees hotter than the iPad 2. Apple, however, asserts that the new iPad operates “well within [its] thermal specifications....

Sad news out of South Bend as the Huffington Post reports that a Notre Dame student dies when a tower collapses from heavy winds. 20-year-old junior Declan Sullivan was filming football practice at the LaBar practice complex when the tower collapsed. At the time of the collapse winds in the area were reportedly close to 51 miles per hour. A day earlier, the Notre Dame football team moved their practice indoors because of the windy conditions....

New teen tanning regulations may soon be a reality for tanning salons. California, one of the largest states in the U.S., is considering implementing a new ban that would prevent teens under the age of 18 from going under the lamp, reports the AP. Teens under the age of 14 are already prohibited from using tanning beds. Under the current regulations, teens between the ages of 14 and 18 can tan, but only with parental approval, the AP reports....

As any parent knows, summer can be a hot topic. And not just the weather. Come June, when the kids are out of school, the real heat begins. The workable child custody agreement that separated parents have put together during the school year flies out the window, and the bummer of summer begins. If a child custody dispute arises, you may be wondering, when should you seek mediation? How Can I Turn Down the Heat?...

Some people believe that home office deductions are akin to begging the IRS to audit your taxes. While this can be true in some situations, home office tax deductions, if done properly, are completely legal and can provide a big pay off. So if you work from home, consider the following tips. Home office tax deduction rules are a bit tricky, but with a little forethought and attention to detail, you should be just fine....

A new development in the ongoing Pennsylvania school spying by webcam case previously covered in this blog came on Friday. Two technicians with the embattled Lower Merion School District were reportedly placed on administrative leave. According to a statement from the school district, “Placing them [Technician Michael Perbix and systems coordinator Carol Cafiero] on administrative leave with pay is not a reflection of any wrongdoing on their part. It is a standard, prudent step in an investigation such as this one,” the district said in a statement Friday, confirming a report by the Philadelphia Enquirer....

Way back in 2011, the former President Barack Obama’s administration set up “We the People,” an electronic petitioning system that provided users with a free WhiteHouse.gov account that allowed them to create new petitions and sign existing ones. The site garnered a lot of attention and more than a few petitions – from September 2011 to July 3, 2016 almost 5,000 petitions were submitted that received at least 150 signatures, including 174 petitions in the site’s first eight days....

In the wake of more and more mass shootings, the House of Representatives passed the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017, a bill that would require each state to recognize concealed carry permits issued in other states. Proponents of the new law claim it would reduce confusion caused by conflicting state laws on gun ownership and ease travel for gun owners. Opponents say that states with strict gun control laws would be forced to follow much looser firearm restrictions passed by other states....

The cargo ship El Faro disappeared off the Bahamas on October 1st, and on November 2nd, the U.S. Navy confirmed that wreckage found over the weekend was the El Faro. In the time it took to confirm the location of the ship, five separate lawsuits have been filed: four from victims of the shipwreck’s families, and one from the ship’s owner seeking to block those lawsuits and shield itself from legal or financial liability for the wreck....

It may seem harmless at first. Your kid wants a sip of your margarita. Then a few years later, wants a beer at a barbecue. Later, he wants a 40-ouncer for his own personal consumption at a high school party. What about opening up your stash of marijuana to him, even in a state where adult consumption is legal? It’s tempting to give in. Maybe you want to be “the cool parent....