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The U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission has released new guidelines for the enforcement of laws prohibiting workplace discrimination against pregnant women. These are the first new federal guidelines on pregnancy discrimination in more than 30 years, reports The Washington Post. The document, titled “EEOC Enforcement Guidance on Pregnancy Discrimination Related Issues,” seeks to clarify the federal rules on discrimination against pregnant workers under both the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act....

Last week the Department of Labor announced expanded overtime pay for millions of middle-class workers. People who work more than 40 hours a week and earn salaries of up to about $47,000 a year will now benefit from higher pay for their added hours, up from a cap of about $23,000. The expansion, which goes into effect in December, is meant to assist a beleaguered middle-class, hard hit by the economic downturn of the last decade....

Small businesses are suffering from the latest government spending scandal. The General Services Administration (GSA) has come under heat recently for its spending practices and in its processes for awarding government contracts. Many of the government contracts mandated for small businesses were instead diverted to larger businesses, according to The Washington Post. The accusations arose based on a Las Vegas event two years ago. At the “Western Regions” training conference. The inspector general’s report showed that the government spent over $822,000 on the conference, with included 300 attendees....

Some commentary on CNN today brought up the flip-side of the “fault” vs. “no-fault” divorce issue discussed earlier in the context of New York divorce law. The author, Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears (who actually stepped down this week), seems to argue in part that, basically, it’s gotten to be too easy to get divorces and marriages have been made disposable. The commentary provides some insight on divorce from a judicial perspective, and also on some serious personal and societal consequences....

As technology continues to progress, nearly every industry is discovering new ways that the new technology can improve their processes. Alongside the medical and health industries, employers and companies that handle workers’ compensation claims are embracing mobile, wearable, and smart technologies. Some companies have even created apps and web-portals for employees to process claims through. When it comes to workers’ comp claims, not only are the advances in technology helping with the claim processing end of things, the advances also have great potential to aid in injury prevention....

One of your responsibilities as an employer is to create a harassment-free work environment. Under federal law, employers are legally responsible if they permit a hostile work environment to persist without taking corrective action. It’s therefore necessary to monitor your employees’ conduct as well as put in place a harassment policy. Chances are that you’ve had an employee complain about a hostile work environment because he didn’t get along with you or a co-worker....

Parks are great places for a picnic or BBQ, but injuries can and do happen. Tree limbs can fall, children can drown in lakes, and poorly maintained grounds can provide various ways to trip and fall. So if you’re injured in a park, how do you sue? Here’s a general overview: If you’ve been injured on private land, the landowner may be liable for your injuries under a theory of premises liability....

Attention bar and restaurant owners: Today is National Waiters and Waitresses Day. So you may want to send your staff an e-mail or speak with them individually and let them know how much you appreciate their hard work. And while we’re on the subject, today might also be a good day to brush up on your knowledge of employee rights, not just for waiters and waitresses, but for everyone on your staff....

The Milton Hershey School, founded by chocolate-maker Milton Hershey, operates in Pennsylvania and was founded in 1909 to educate socially disadvantaged and low-income students for free. Now, the school has reportedly denied admission to a HIV-positive student because of his status in a move that may be violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. The AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the 13-year-old student requesting the school reverse its decision and admit the student....

The family of a 12-year-old boy in Harlem who committed suicide, allegedly because of school bullying, is suing the accused bullies along with New York City’s public school system. Joel Morales hanged himself last year after two years of unrelenting bullying, his mother Lisbeth Babilonia claims. She believes Joel was targeted because he was small and sometimes stuttered. Babilonia has filed suit against the city, NYC’s Department of Education, the alleged teen bullies, and their parents....

Did you know that you could deduct your higher education expenses as “business expenses,” under certain circumstances? A nurse won against the IRS for higher education tax deductions she took in her income tax returns. Here’s the surprising part – she went head-to-head with the IRS on her own, without hiring an attorney. What’s even more surprising is that this woman’s case could be a small landmark case in the tax laws dealing with higher education tax deductions....

We say it time and time again: Under certain circumstances, you can fire employees for posting inappropriate tweets. The White House put this golden rule to the test when it recently fired Jofi Joseph, a National Security Council director. Joseph was let go after an extensive investigation linked him to the Twitter handle @NatSecWonk, which criticized many players in Washington and national politics, according to Washington D.C.’s WRC-TV. Worst of all, his disparaging jokes weren’t even funny....

When times get tough, the tough sometimes want to indulge in a little shopping. But retail therapy and reactive spending can be big contributors to a personal credit crunch. There are things you can do to remain financially healthy if you’re not now in trouble and to avoid bankruptcy if you’re on the brink. If you start thinking carefully about expenses, you can bring yourself back from the edge of financial disaster without too much pain and a lot of gain....

Fifty-six million lives were potentially saved this week in a record-setting drug bust near the Nogales, Arizona border crossing. The hero? A drug sniffing dog. Man’s best friend sniffed out 254 pounds of fentanyl, along with 395 pounds of methamphetamine, hidden in the lower compartment of a tractor-trailer truck carrying cucumbers across the border from Mexico. It’s hard to imagine that 254 pounds of a substance has the potential to kill 56 million people....

While you are preparing to start off the new year on the right foot with resolutions about fitness, career, and relationships; I am sure that the last thing on your mind is renter’s insurance. That is a shame because renter’s insurance can bring you a peace of mind that you are protected from life’s unpredictable events. You may assume that you are covered under your landlord’s insurance, but that is not always the case....

As we noted yesterday, lawyers have long been associated with sharks. From Herman Melville to CBS, referring to attorneys as sharks has a long and storied tradition. In honor of shark week, let’s take a look at how you can figure out if your lawyer is a shark: Lawyers Should Be Zealous, Not Vicious Melville’s reference actually turns the lawyers-as-sharks pejorative around: “There is the ordinary Brown Shark, or sea attorney, so called by sailors; a grasping, rapacious varlet, that in spite of the hard knocks received from it, often snapped viciously at our steering oar....

These days more states are relaxing their get-tough-on-juveniles laws. More and more states are rethinking their laws around juvenile sentencing. In fact, Legislators and the U.S. Supreme Court are even rethinking the idea of sending teens away to prison forever. According to the National Law Journal, however, some states aren’t waiting for the Court’s decision to change their approach to juvenile life sentences. Two states (Texas and Connecticut) recently passed legislation that would end life sentences without parole for those under 18 years....

Three extra days. That is the additional time taxpayers get to file their 2010 taxes. The 2010 tax day delay was recently announced by the IRS making midnight on April 18 as the new deadline for taxpayers to post or electronically send their taxes for the past year. The rationale behind the new tax deadline has little to do with giving an extension or break to taxpayers and more to do with the calendar....

Everyone wants to work hard at their job, but some job sites don’t work for everyone. Specifically, workers who have environmental sensitivities can have disabling reactions to substances in the air or office that most people wouldn’t notice. An estimated 15 percent of the population has some form of environmental sensitivity, meaning that one of your employees may be suffering from a hidden disability. As an employer, how can you accommodate an employee with environmental sensitivities?...

Kids see summer camp as fun but for parents safety is a key concern. If you’re going to send your kids away for a whole month or even if it’s just during the day, you don’t want to spend it worrying. It doesn’t have to be stressful finding a camp that takes your child’s safety as seriously as you do. Most camps combine fun and safety to make sure your kid has a great summer experience....