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To become a US citizen you will have to show continuous residence in this country. How long you must live here depends on the nature of your immigration application. Because people’s citizenship applications are based on different grounds – for example: work, humanitarian grounds, or marriage to an American spouse – the rules vary somewhat, and there are also limited exceptions to the continuous residence requirement. Let’s look at the obligations, and when the clock starts ticking....

Joshua Kuiper should’ve known the dangers of drunk driving, including the liability for causing an accident. Kuiper is a former Kent County, Michigan prosecutor, who was fired after crashing his truck into a parked car while traveling the wrong direction on a one way street, seriously injuring Daniel Empson, who was getting a coat out of his car parked on the street. Kuiper, who was charged with a felony charge of reckless driving, should also be aware of dram shop laws, which hold bars and restaurants liable for injuries caused by overserved patrons....

If 2017 has taught us anything, it’s that sexual harassment and even sexual assault in the workplace is rampant, across almost every industry and at almost every level of employment. Sadly, many instances of workplace harassment go unreported, meaning the problem is even more pervasive than we might have even thought. There are many reasons for not reporting sexual harassment, from embarrassment to fear of retaliation, and some victims may not even realize that the behavior they experienced constitutes harassment....

You can expect to hear about benzene and benzene exposure fairly soon in the next few years. As science tells us more and more about the link between benzene and cancer, the harms associated with the chemical will become better known. If you think that you have been exposed to benzene, or are vigilant about your health, it would be wise to read on. What Is Benzene? Benzene is a light-colored liquid that, when heated, evaporates into the air....

Botox maker Allergan Inc. recently plead guilty to criminal misbranding charges stemming from their role in improperly marketing the popular injectable for “off label” uses. According to the Associated Press, Allergan will pay $375 million in fines based on the misdemeanor charge, in addition to $225 in civil fines. Assistant Attorney General Tony West explains the case: “Allergan paid kickbacks to induce physicians to inject Botox for off-label uses, including coaching doctors how to miscode Botox claims leading to millions of dollars of false claims being submitted to federal and state programs....

Are you a physicist? No? Then you probably can’t fight a traffic ticket with physics. But Dmirti Krioukov, a physicist at the University of California, San Diego successfully managed to accomplish this task. Krioukov was busted for failing to completely stop at a stop sign – what we here in California know as the original California roll. Instead of paying up, he got busy. He wrote a 4-page paper explaining that what the officer thought he saw wasn’t what he saw at all....

Many children who have a limited attention span have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD), and if their disorder includes impulsiveness or hyperactivity, they may be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Both ADD and ADHD can have severe impacts on a child’s ability to learn, as well as an adult’s ability to work. Disability insurance is designed to compensate someone if they are disabled and unable to work....

We’ve all heard horror stories about homeowners’ associations, imposing fines or even eviction notices on residents for grass that’s too brown, playhouses that are too pink, families that are too big, and yard decorations that are too time-travely. And while all those stories seem ridiculous, the standard legal response is often, “Well, that’s what you get with an HOA – gotta abide by the agreement.” But what if a community is saying you can’t buy or inherent a home because you practice the wrong religion or you’re not religious enough?...

There are a number of ways to be injured at a bar, not just from drinking. Most action movies would have you believe that bar fights with pool cues and broken bottles break out daily. Even if your local watering hole is not exactly “Road House,” it is still more likely for you to be injured simply by ordering a drink. Bar patrons can sue for injuries caused by being served, and here’s how....

Once our medical devices became “smart,” or even just dependent on embedded computer or radio components for communication, the possibility of hacking those devices became a reality. While much of the focus has been on hacking pacemakers, doctors writing in the Chicago Sun-Times point out that those aren’t the only vulnerable medical devices. “Defibrillators, neurostimulators and implantable drug pumps, like insulin pumps, rely on the same embedded computers and software radios for their two-way communication, they noted, adding, “weak security features have left these devices potentially vulnerable to outside manipulation....

Harvard Law professor Cass Sunstein inched one step closer to being anointed as head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) yesterday after Democrats succeeded in breaking the filibuster against the candidate. Sunstein was tapped by President Obama for the position– known as the “Regulatory Czar”– which is responsible for reviewing effectiveness of federal regulations. And that could be big news for for small business. The role Sunstein is in line to fill, Regulatory Czar, is another in the number of “czars” appointed in the new administration’s government....

Collecting customer data is a hot-button issue for small business owners. On one hand, collecting customer data can have real value to shaping the direction of your business. On the other hand, collecting customer information can raise serious privacy concerns that may expose you to legal liability. Fortunately, there are ways to reap the benefits of big data without incurring liability. Here are three ways to legally collect customer data:...

Starting a home business can be filled with pitfalls beyond the question of whether or not your productivity suffers if you work in pajamas. Frequently, zoning laws and other rules or regulations will apply to a home business. Zoning laws limit the way in which land owners and residents can use their own properties. Generally, zoning laws distinguish between residential, commercial, and industrial properties, and can prohibit areas zoned for one use to be used for other uses....

Georgia man and devout Christian Billy E. Hyatt worked in a factory. His plant, Berry Plastics Corp., required employees to wear stickers with the number of days they have gone accident-free. As the numbers approached the “666” mark, Hyatt became concerned. He didn’t want to wear a “666” sticker. To him, that number was the “mark of the beast” as proclaimed in the Bible’s Book of Revelation. He believed that if he wore the mark he would be “condemned to hell....

Crowdfunding site Kickstarter has been in the news this week after an Ohio man decided to crowdfund his first stab at making potato salad – and managed to raise nearly $60,000 from more than 4,000 people so far. Zack “Danger” Brown had hoped his somewhat tongue-in-cheek Kickstarter project would reach his goal of $60, reports The Columbus Dispatch. His runaway success is further proof that whether you’re looking to fund your own personal project or become part of someone else’s, Kickstarter can be a great tool for making a lot of really cool stuff (or just a lot of potato salad) happen....

About 10 million Americans received tax refund loans last year, and the IRS is going to do something about that. Many of us look at the Internal Revenue Service as the bad guy, depriving U.S. taxpayers of their hard-earned cash. But this time, the IRS says it is trying to do just the opposite. The agency will no longer provide certain information to banks letting them know that a tax refund will shortly be available for deposit, therefore making it riskier for the banks to underwrite tax refund loans....

Asking about salary has been one of the most common questions on just about every employment application. And in some jurisdictions, it must now be a thing of the past. In efforts to eliminate the wage gap between male and female employees, some cities and states have made past salary inquiries illegal and some courts have banned them as well. But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that employers can pay women less than men if that difference is based on salary histories as long as the reasons behind using the prior salary effectuates a business policy and the employer uses prior salary reasonably....

A prosecutor in Wayne County, Michigan, (which includes the city of Detroit) has a new proposal to get parents to attend at least one parent-teacher conference. The average kid in a Detroit school missed 46 days of school last year, so prosecutor Kym Worthy wants parents to start taking some responsibility – and she is ready to put them in jail if they don’t. According to a report by the Chicago Tribune, Worthy will take her proposal to county commissioners, then on to the legislature in Lansing....

It’s not often that a case about jury misconduct makes headlines. Deonarine Persaud, 53, was arrested in New York after he tried to bribe the plaintiff’s mother in the case he was sitting as a juror in. The plaintiff in that case, Bridget Wigand, filed a medical malpractice suit against her physician. Wigand’s mother received a phone call from Persaud when the jury was about to deliberate, reports CBS-2. The man on the other line said that he had some vital, damaging information for Wigand’s case....

As one of the groups most likely to face housing discrimination, single mothers often have a difficult time renting apartments and homes in areas safe enough for their families. In one such incident, Darlene Dovenberg, of Dovenberg Investments in West Salem, Wisconsin, refused to rent to a single mother, claiming that the property was unsafe without a man around “to shovel the snow.” She’s now the subject of an administrative complaint brought by the U....