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Impeached Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich filed a motion in federal court to subpoena President Obama to testify in the Blagojevich corruption case. As previously discussed, ousted Governor Blagojevich was removed from office after an alleged attempt to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama and other alleged efforts to leverage the powers of his office. According to the 10-page motion it says that the president must have information pertaining to case, the Chicago Tribune reports....

Did you know that there are more than 25,000 inmates housed in 13 private federal prisons? Well, there are. And those inmates can’t sue private prison employees for violating the 8th Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. No, according to a new ruling by the Supreme Court, federal inmates must sue private prison employees in state courts. They must also base their claims on state tort law. No constitutional law allowed....

Another former employee for the New York Post has filed a discrmination lawsuit against the newspaper over his unfair dismissal when he expressed his sentiments over the controversial NY Post Obama cartoon which depicted the President as a dead chimpanzee. We previously wrote wrote about how another former employee of the New York Post, Sandra Guzman, filed a discrimination lawsuit against the Post. The Huffington Post reports that Austin Fenner, an African American city desk reporter was “routinely humiliated,” “openly cursed at” and subjected to “Jim Crow”-style segregation while he worked for the New York Post....

Ohio is thinking through ways to address its corrections budget and prison population problems. A new study released by a Washington, D.C. think tank also may provide some insight on how to help states save $15 billion if they were to place half of their non-violent criminals probation or parole instead of in prisons and jails, the Dayton Daily News reports. The Center for Economic Policy Research released its study as Ohio is trying to reduce a $1....

The last hired, first fired approach that Los Angeles School District employs when budget cuts force layoffs may be getting a facelift. In what is being considered a landmark settlement, the Los Angeles Board of Education approved a settlement that limits LA teachers seniority, among other things. The Los Angeles Times reports that the settlement would limit laying off teachers strictly on a seniority basis. The settlement would still take seniority into account, but would require layoffs based on senority to be distributed equally among schools to ensure that no school loses a disproportionate number of teachers at a given time....

Attention would be slip and fall plaintiffs: if you’re going to sue someone for a slip and fall on their property, a rough estimate isn’t going cut it. Neither will the wrong location. Robert Graczyk learned that lesson the hard way. The Michigan man fell and was injured on an uneven sidewalk while retrieving his trash can. He gave Bay City notice of the potential slip and fall case. However, he said that the injury happened on the northeast corner of the street, while it turns out it happened on the northwest corner....

By now we were pretty aware of the effect Flint, Michigan’s lead-tainted water had on the city’s living residents. But what about those yet to be born? Just last month, researchers found that, following Flint’s switch to the Flint River as its water source and altered its water treatment program, fertility rates in the city decreased by 12 percent, fetal death rates increased by 58 percent, and overall health at birth decreased....

Litigation can be time-consuming and expensive. And when it comes to divorce, those are two things you probably want to avoid. So how can divorcing couples avoid the lengthy court calendar and extensive filing fees? One option is divorce mediation, where both parties sit down with an independent mediator in a less formal setting, as opposed to appearing before a judge in a courtroom. But even if you determine that mediation is right for you (and your spouse agrees), how do you figure out which mediator is right for your divorce?...

Divorced parents everywhere sometimes get a crash course in child support law not because they want to, but because they have problems getting the monetary support they need in order to take care of their kids. What do you need to ensure you get your payments for child support? A court order? An airtight divorce agreement? Getting child support may mean more than just a court decree. There are many ways to help parents ensure that they are able to get their child support payments, not limited to just the law....

The term “default” gets thrown around a lot in divorce cases, but what does it mean? There are actually two answers, depending on the context in which the term “default” is used. When a party fails to respond to a divorce petition within the time proscribed by law, the party is “in default.” This can also happen if a party fails to show up for a court hearing. The other kind of default is a “default judgment” – generally, the last step in finalizing an uncontested divorce....

There is a certain standard of care that surgeons owe their patients – that their level of skill, expertise, and care is the same possessed and practiced by physicians in the same or similar community, and under similar circumstances. While this standard was once geographically relative, the same standard applies to all doctors practicing the same medicine nationwide. So weight loss surgeons in Manhattan, Kansas are held to the same standard as those in Manhattan, New York....

Musician, actor, and cultural icon David Bowie passed away on January 10, and the details of his will are now being released. While his arrangements were fairly straightforward – the bulk of his estate went to his family – there were a few quirks that can shed some light on the estate planning process. Here’s what David Bowie’s will can teach you about writing your own: Although Bowie’s will only went into effect when he died, The New York Times reported that it was written over a decade ago, long before the performer was diagnosed with liver cancer....

Basically, the issue focuses on the government’s ability to obtain not just a search warrant to search through a user’s files stored on the cloud, but also a gag order which prevents the company providing the cloud storage from notifying the user that the search will occur or has occurred. Government Logic Defies Common Sense The government contends that users could delete their files, hence the need for so-called “sneak-and-peak” searches....

Workers’ compensation is the insurance system set up to provide benefits to employees injured on the job. But does workers’ compensation also provide coverage for independent contractors? Generally, independent contractors are not eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. But independent contractors who are injured on the job should not automatically assume that they will be unable to receive benefits. In some instances, employees may be misclassified as “independent contractors.” In these cases, an injured worker that is able to prove that the circumstances or his or her employment are such that he or she should be considered an employee may be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits....

Nobody wants a back injury. It hurts! But, when a back injury prevents you from being able to do your job, the pain can be felt in your wallet as well as on your back. Work related back injuries, also known as musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), account for one-third of all work related injuries and illnesses each year. The average cost of a back injury worker’s comp claim can be as high as $80,000....

Congress held a hearing on Bitcoin and small businesses Wednesday. Though no action was taken, the discussion could impact the virtual currency and businesses that currently accept it (or are considering it) for payment. In case you’re still in the dark, Bitcoin is the world’s first decentralized, peer-to-peer virtual currency. This means that it’s not backed by any banks, credit card companies, or governments, according to The Washington Post. So before you get on board with Bitcoin, here are three tidbits to ponder from the House Committee on Small Business’ Bitcoin hearing:...

If you are Jewish, you are being judged for the next ten days. God has your name written in a book and will determine your fate for the year based on this period between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur – called the Days of Awe. As such, practicing Jews try to right wrongdoings before the book is sealed. This is serious business, a time of introspection and repentance; but God is not the only one judging....

The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is this coming Monday, and you may be wondering whether you have to give your workers MLK Day off. After all, it’s a federal holiday. So your employees may be clamoring for this day off, even though they wouldn’t get non-federal holidays off like Valentine’s Day or Kwanzaa. But with many people staying home from work, you may want to stay open on Monday as it may be prime time for a bump in business....

Two doctors are asking a federal court in Minnesota to reject the plea agreement between medical device maker Guidant LLC, owned by Boston Scientific Corp, and the U.S. Attorney General, resolving charges the company withheld information about its defibrillators from the FDA. Drs. Robert Hauser and Barry Maron were the physicians treating one young patient whose defibrillator, made by Guidant, did not function as needed and allegedly caused his death. The plea agreement allows the company to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges and agrees to a fine of $296 million, the largest criminal penalty ever levied against a medical devices company....

If you, like Dr. Oz, feel there’s too much arsenic in apple juice, you can relax a bit. The FDA wants to set a new limit on the level of arsenic allowed in apple juice, after more than a year of public pressure from consumer groups worried about the contaminant’s potential effects on children. If you have an opinion on the matter, the FDA would like to hear from you....