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Not every job pays all the bills. And not every full-time job leads to emotional fulfillment. That means that employees will be eyeing other opportunities, and in some cases working those jobs concurrently with full-time employment. These days more people than ever have some sort of gig on the side, and whether that side business is profitable or not could mean a huge difference come tax time. So how can employees make sure their side business is legal?...

Employers big and small are gearing up for the holiday rush, and for many that means bringing on additional staff to handle the workload. And while bosses may think there’s less risk in hiring an employee for a few weeks rather than a few years, temporary and seasonal employees can carry long-term legal consequences if not handled properly. Here are some of the legal considerations you’ll want to be aware of if you’re hiring holiday staff....

Steelworkers are not entitled to overtime for time spent donning and doffing protective gear, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled Monday. The main question in Sandifer v. U.S. Steel : What does “changing clothes” mean? Though many business owners may not realize it, the answer to that question carries significant compensation implications for employers. U.S. Steel Corporation requires its workers to wear elaborate protective gear because of the hazards at its steel plants....

Under New York law, prisoners and those on parole are stripped of their voting rights A new report released, Jim Crow in New York discusses the impacts of the state’s criminal disenfranchisement law. According to the New York Times, the state’s criminal disenfranchisement provisions, like those deployed in the South were enacted nearly 140 years ago. New York and many other states adapted their criminal codes to punish those offenses with which they believed freedmen were likely to be charged, including bigamy, vagrancy, petty theft and burglary, according to the report by Brennan Center for Justice....

Parents in the Encinitas School District threatened that the school might be sued over yoga classes, but now they’re putting that threat into action. At least, one set of parents is doing that. Stephen and Jennifer Sedlock have sued the district over the yoga classes it offers to elementary students as part of physical education. They claim the classes violate the right to religious freedom. But the school district doesn’t agree with the Sedlock’s assessment....

The recent shooting at the Empire State Building was revealed to be an act of workplace violence. The alleged shooter, Jeffrey Johnson, was reportedly a former employee at a company near the Empire State building who was laid off six months ago. The man is said to have returned to his ex-employer to collect unpaid money and apparently exact revenge on a company vice president, reports The Associated Press. The Empire State building shooting should serve as a reminder to employers everywhere of the real dangers of workplace violence and the importance of terminating employees with care....

The Petits were the model American family: with the father a popular Connecticut doctor, a daughter excited to attend Dartmouth College, another daughter looking forward to her teenage years, and a mother who was a serving as a public example of the fight against MS. The family of four tragically became a party of one, after a deadly home invasion which left the wife and two daughters dead, and the father severely beaten....

January 11 is Human Trafficking Awareness Day. And though it’s a global issue, small businesses in the United States may indeed have a role to play in the effort to stop human trafficking. While some may only associate human trafficking with sexual slavery, the term actually applies to all people who are harbored or recruited to perform labor through force, fraud, or coercion, as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement explains....

Last-mile motorized electric scooter rentals are all the rage these days. And when I say all, I mean all. People are irate over the chaos created by the controversial descent of Bird scooters all over cities and towns that have been dropped all over like, well, droppings. Annoyances aside, these motorized scooters are creating safety issues, and police are now getting involved. These scooters reach a maximum of 15 mph, and therefore many users prefer to ride them on the sidewalk, away from whizzing cars....

It’s back-to-school time and that means back to the teachers we love. On the whole, teachers are hard-working, gracious, patient, and inspiring leaders doing double the work for half the pay and mentoring whole generations of students. Every now and then, though, you run into a bad apple. And while these nightmare teachers may not spoil the whole bunch, they can spoil your day or year. The Teacher Afraid of Children: A real thing, apparently!...

Some 20,000 students are suing the state of California and its education workers for failing to provide adequate instruction to non-native English speakers. By its own records, the state isn’t offering English instruction to nearly 20,000 students, causing children to be held back a grade or live with low proficiency scores due to the language barrier, reports The Christian Science Monitor. Under state and federal laws, schools are required to teach non-English speakers the language – but how to teach it is another matter....

While you may have thought that swimming electrocutions are rare, there were several tragic reminders this week. In two separate incidents, three children were killed as they swam in lakes that became electrified. In the first incident, a 13-year-old girl and her 8-year-old brother were killed when they were shocked while swimming in the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, reports NBC. The Missouri Highway Patrol is looking into the incident and suspect that electricity powering lights and a pump that supplies water to a slide children use at a dock, may have been the cause of the electricity....

With the Winter Olympics winding down, what are some good business lessons that can be learned from the Sochi games? Despite fierce competition, the Olympics are meant to bring the international community together. The medalists, of course, are the ones who’ve succeeded by working hard without resorting to underhanded tactics. The same can apply to many business situations. So here are five lessons business owners can take away from the Winter Olympics:...

Times Square car bomber suspect Faisal Shahzad was charged with multiple counts of terrorism and weapons charges. In an indictment handed down by a grand jury, Faisal Shahzad was accused of receiving explosives training and financial help from the Pakistani Taliban, the Associated Press reports. The purpose of an indictment is to inform an accused individual of the charge against him or her so that the person will be able to prepare a defense....

A New Jersey man’s beer pong lawsuit was tossed out by a New York judge. Alan Berger was 22 when he went to Wicked Willy’s. At that bar, he played lots of beer pong. Beer pong is a drinking game. The goal is to bounce ping pong balls into cups containing beer. If the ball lands in a cup, your opponent must drink the cup’s contents. Berger ended up quite inebriated....

A man who successfully sued a cruise line for a head injury may not see his $21 million in damages after all. The man’s former assistant has revealed that she lied about his brain injury for him before the trial and was then fired right before the case was going to be heard, reports The Seattle Times. James Hausman won $5 million in compensatory damages and $16 million in punitive damages for an injury he sustained due to a faulty sliding glass door on a Holland America cruise ship....

Summer months come and go quickly. If you haven’t already been soaking up some sun in the park this summer with hot food on the grill and a cold adult beverage in your hand, you’ve probably got a plan to do so soon. While many people have been searching the grilling ordinances for their local parks – after learning that their neighbors are all too happy to call 911 on a charcoal grill in the “non-charcoal” section of the park – they may not be as studiously reading their local alcohol statutes....

Last week, a Kansas-based manufacturer of food and beverage products accidently released a toxic chemical gas, a mixture of sodium hypocholorite and sulfuric acid, which sent over 100 people to the hospital. Fortunately, of the 125 people who sought medical attention, only two required an overnight stay in the hospital. MGP Ingredients, which was responsible for the spill, explained that the gas spill had dissipated after only a few hours. Additionally, the company has reported the incident to the EPA and plans to fully cooperate with the investigation....

Divorce is so expensive, many poorer Americans seem to be opting for long-term separations instead, a new study finds. The study followed a nationally representative sample of more than 7,200 people over a 30-year period. Results, to be presented at an upcoming American Sociological Association meeting, suggest socioeconomic and racial differences in how Americans pursue divorce. After a marital separation, 80% of people ended up getting a divorce, most within three years of separation, researchers found....

The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates once famously said, “Nothing is to be preferred before justice.” Former attorney Richard Fine seems to share more than a belief in this maxim with Socrates. Like the philosopher, Fine too believes he is unjustly imprisoned and refuses to take the easiest way out. Is Richard Fine crazy, or simply passionate about justice? We now know that the U.S. Supreme Court will not be answering this question, after declining to look into Fine’s petition on Monday....