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Whitney Houston’s will has been discussed a lot this week. How will the late singer’s assets be doled out to her daughter Bobbi Kristina? And just how do trusts work anyway? A judge in Atlanta validated Whitney Houston’s “Last Will and Testament,” a 19-page document that leaves everything to her daughter, the gossip website TMZ reports. Whitney Houston’s money will go into a trust for Bobbi Kristina, 19, who won’t see any of it until she turns 21, according to Inside Edition....

Deceased Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev had his U.S. citizenship application delayed because of a prior FBI interview. The interview was conducted in 2011 at the request of the Russian government, based on suspicion that Tsarnaev may have had links to terrorist groups, The New York Times reports. Although Tamerlan’s interview succeeded in delaying his citizenship application, that’s not the only way such an application can be delayed or denied. Here are five common reasons why even law-abiding immigrants can be denied citizenship:...

Experts predict the season’s deep discounts will lead to deep return lines come January. Consumers binged on good deals, buying unnecessary items and cheaper duplicates. Add to that the results of a Better Business Bureau survey and you can expect chaos. Approximately 1/3 of all consumers don’t read return and exchange policies when making a purchase. How are you going to prevent a post-holiday gift return nightmare? If you’re not sure, start here....

Even as accident investigators continue to piece together the last moments of Air France Flight 447 and pin down the cause of the plane’s crash into the Atlantic, legal experts are already debating where the inevitable lawsuits over the air disaster will be heard, as the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog and Bloomberg.com are discussing this week. So, where to file lawsuits over the crash of Flight 447? It becomes a more complex question the closer you look at the United Nations-esque circumstances of the accident: a French air carrier, Brazil departure, Paris destination, crash in international waters, with passengers and crew representing 30 different countries, as the WSJ’s Law Blog points out....

The mental health of migrant children trumps the federal government shutdown, hands-down, according to a Los Angeles federal court judge. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee certified the class of detained asylum-seeking migrant children requesting mental health aid, and firmly dismissed the government’s request to delay the suit until after the federal shutdown has ended. In Gee’s ruling, four orders were given. First, the federal government’s request for a continuance was denied....

With the trial now in the past, it appears as though the public has refocused its wrath onto the Casey Anthony jurors, instead of Casey Anthony herself. With the amount vitriol spewed in their direction, it’s no wonder that they’ve been overwhelmingly quiet, refusing to talk to the media and wishing to remain anonymous. And according NBC News, at least one of them has gone into hiding. Though her name remains a secret, the husband of Juror #12 told the network that his wife has left Florida in fear that her co-workers and neighbors will shun and harass her as a result of the verdict....

With increasing sophistication of cyber tools for online innovation comes slicker cybercrime. A multimillion dollar virtual crime wave targeting small and mid-size companies has been reported by NACHA-The Electronics Payment Association–a task force representing over 15,000 institutions in the financial industry. NACHA reports that cyberbullies have been swiping small business usernames and passwords associated with corporate accounts at banks using malware and tools that record keystrokes. The gangs organizing the bulk of the million-dollar criminal mischief appear to be from Eastern Europe....

Recent studies have diagnosed a growing problem in operating rooms: Distracted doctors and surgical staff are often texting or surfing the web while performing patient procedures. It’s led to medical errors and lawsuits. “My gut feeling is lives are in danger,” a doctor and author of one of the studies told The New York Times. “We’re not educating people about the problem, and it’s getting worse.” Case in point: a patient in Colorado who was left partly paralyzed, allegedly by a distracted doctor....

Hiring a contractor for even a small project is no simple task. But once you’ve settled on a project, a contractor, and a price, what do you do when problems pop up after the work has started? Disputes with contractors can be among the most difficult to navigate. Not only do most people want the dispute to be resolved without a fight, but they also don’t want to pay more money, or hire a new contractor and start over....

A killer bee death in Texas has left a man’s family in mourning. It also raises a few potential legal issues regarding liability. Larry Goodwin of Moody, Texas, who just celebrated his 62nd birthday on Friday, was driving his tractor when it hit a pile of wood – which included an empty chicken coop that contained 22 honeycombs. An estimated 40,000 killer bees swarmed and stung him to death, KCEN-TV reports....

A federal judge in Kentucky has upheld the rights of gay couples to marry in the Bluegrass State, following a February ruling which would force the state to recognize out-of-state gay marriages. In his decision in Love v. Beshear, U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II struck down Kentucky’s ban on same-sex marriage, noting that “even sincere and long-held religious beliefs do not trump the constitutional rights of those who happen to be out-voted....

Here’s a legal opinion that a Tennessee mother may have found hard to swallow: You can’t sell chickenpox lollipops through the mail. The U.S. Attorney in Nashville went public with that warning, after learning about Wendy Werkit’s fledgling business on Facebook. She’d set up a page to sell suckers – laced with a germy layer of saliva from her pox-stricken kids. The goal: For other parents to expose their children to chickenpox – giving the kids immunity without getting vaccinated....

A Two Part Series on Marriage and Divorce Rates in the Current Economy Part One: Great Recession, Better Marriage? The Great Recession has shown us many paradoxes about our economy, ourselves, and now our marriages. Free markets are good, but not as good as Alan Greenspan thought. The recession is “ending,” but jobs are still scarce. Financial stresses are up, but divorce is down. Nothing is quite what we thought....

Unless you’re really enamored with the law, most Americans dread getting a jury summons in the mail. This is something that jurors in Florida and Texas probably wished they knew before they decided to skip out on jury duty. One Texas judge has issued letters to about 294 individuals who failed to report to jury duty in late September. These jurors will be asked to show cause in a hearing (i....

This week is National Veterans Small Business Week, a week dedicated to recognizing and supporting veteran entrepreneurs and small business owners. Those celebrating National Veterans Small Business Week include President Barack Obama. In a memo released Monday, President Obama noted, “Even after our service members hang up their uniforms, they keep shaping our country, applying their innovative and unique skills to form small businesses that define our communities and drive economic progress....

The Obama birth certificate is officially out, with the President caving to detractors who have continually asserted that he was born in Kenya, not in Hawaii, making him ineligible for office. If you’re wondering why it even matters whether he was born in the U.S. or abroad given that his mother was a U.S. citizen, it has to do with one little constitutional clause and a whole lot of common law interpretation....

There is a battle going on at Playboy, and no, it does not involve bunnies wielding swords. This battle is for control of the company, leaving founder and guiding force Hugh Hefner trying to take the company private to avoid losing control in a sale. That is a real possibility, as FriendFinder Networks, parent company of Playboy competitor Penthouse, has made an offer for the company. FriendFinder has offered a total of $210 million, or $7....

Sweet tooth or not, the sugar prices have food-makers big and small concerned. Sugar prices are at a 28-year high, and up 72% from what they were six months ago. Unfavorable weather–droughts in India and rains in Brazil–affected the crops of the top two sugar-producing countries. The country’s major food producers are concerned with recent increases in the cost of raw and refined sugar and are urging the Obama administration to loosen import laws restricting import of foreign sugar to meet domestic needs....

A drunk driver killed Katherine “Emily” Jones in 2011 but now her family is suing the strip club that served the driver. The driver was drinking at Rick’s Cabaret the night of the accident and the family alleges that their policies encouraged over-serving. Entertainers were required to pay a nightly ‘house charge’ to keep their jobs which was paid by selling drinks to earn ‘credits’, according to the Lanier Law Firm....

In what appears could be a tragic story of online chatting, turned-to-stalking, turned-to-violence, the AP reported on a 23 year old New York woman who was allegedly killed by a jilted online acquaintance. Although details are a bit sketchy at this point, the case does raise questions about online safety, particularly in the context of online dating sites. According to police allegations, Raymond Dennis (aka Mike, as he was known online), met 23-year-old Nimzay Aponte online via AOL and Local-Hookupz....