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In the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shooting earlier this year, students nationwide staged walkouts to protest gun violence and support stricter gun control laws. Students at Hononegah Community High School in Rockton, Illinois walked out on March 14, 2018, but not all of those students were on the same side of the gun control debate. Madison Oster, a junior at Hononegah with “sincerely-held beliefs regarding the individual right of the Second Amendment, firearms policies in general, and about the optimal way to protect schools in the event of a violent attack” marched that day carrying signs that read “Pro Life, Pro God, Pro Gun” and “Protect Us, Police For All Schools....

Selling a house isn’t just difficult emotionally. It can also be legally complicated, with putting the property on the market and negotiating and finalizing the sale. And in any complicated process, certain things can fall through the cracks. So here’s a legal checklist for selling your home, so nothing gets left behind. This should’ve been done when you purchased the property, but you’ll need to confirm to any potential buyers that you own clear title to the home, or disclose any liens on the property....

Are musical instruments allowed as carry-on items on airplanes? Whether you chanced upon a nifty banjo during your travels or dug up that dusty violin from your childhood, you, like many other musically inclined jet-setters, may be wondering if your instrument will be allowed in the overhead compartment – especially since many instruments exceed the posted dimensions for carry-on luggage. As expected, special rules exist for traveling with musical instruments – but it is possible to bring them on board without having to pay extra fees....

This week is National Small Business Week. For the wide variety of people considering starting a business, this week we’ll detail the basic types of legal entities small businesses can use. To begin, we’ll look at the advantages and disadvantages of operating as a limited liability company (LLC). The SBA’s National Small Business Week website offers webcasts of this week’s speakers and events, which cover a wide variety of topics....

It seems that the TSA’s privacy issues came to a boil when they announced full-on body scans that seemed to let TSA agents get a complete eyeful of a passenger’s naked body. New TSA body scan software, however, might make the privacy issue moot - at least in relation to body scanners. With new software installed, the TSA full-body scanner will no longer display a person’s naked body on the screen....

A New York man’s $2,400 Airbnb fine was overturned by a New York City regulatory board. Earlier this year, an administrative law judge ordered Nigel Warren to pay a fine after he rented his room in a two-bedroom apartment to a tourist for a few days, via the online booking site Airbnb. But the city’s Environmental Control Board reversed the judge’s decision. Under New York law, it’s unlawful to rent out a single-family home, apartment, or room for less than 30 days if you aren’t living there....

First, there was the Taco Bell meat lawsuit. And now, there’s the Taco Bell haircut lawsuit. On behalf of Christopher Abbey, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a federal lawsuit against the owners of a Taco Bell franchise in Fayetteville, North Carolina, alleging that the company engaged in impermissible religious discrimination when it fired Abbey after he refused to cut his hair. His religion forbids it. Ordinarily, it is within an employer’s right to enforce a strict dress code and grooming policy within the workplace....

Many small businesses have recently had their credit card interest rates hiked and/or their credit limits slashed. At the same time, more business owners have come to rely on plastic to operate or finance the business. With consumer credit card protection approaching, some wonder whether we’ll see any small business oriented reform of credit card industry practices. The National Small Business Association (NSBA) released its 2009 Small Business Credit Card Survey....

One might assume that with all his experience, age, wisdom and age, an employer like Hugh Hefner might be able to foresee and forestall little problems like the current age discrimination suit that just got handed to the also-aging Playboy Enterprises. According to former guest relations coordinator for the Playboy Mansion, Jennifer Lewis, the Playboy company just doesn’t appreciate a gal after she turns 47. Workers over the age of 40 are protected from discrimination based on age under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)....

What do you make of the elementary school teacher’s aide who allegedly taped a Georgia student’s mouth shut? Corporal punishment is a term used to describe physical discipline in schools. Many states have outlawed corporal punishment entirely. Georgia is not one of them. But is taping a student’s mouth shut going too far? The teacher’s aide in question reportedly placed the clear tape over the kindergartener’s mouth when she wouldn’t stop talking....

Do you know what you need to do if you’ve been injured in an accident? If you decide to file an accident injury claim or lawsuit, there’s something you should be aware of. You need to reduce your losses. This means you need to take appropriate action to make sure your losses are minimized – not maximized. If you don’t, the defendant can try to reduce your damages award. So what should you try to do after an accident?...

Some deaths feel accidental, tragic, unavoidable. And some others feel so easily preventable. Malfunctions and accidents happen, but we hope that the systems we put in place to protect us from those inevitable dangers will work. And when they don’t, we want to hold them accountable. So it’s understandable that a person might expect a home security system, one that promised to alert authorities in case of alarm, wouldn’t ignore two warnings and unanswered calls and “inexplicably” clear an incident, especially when that incident is a deadly house fire....

A new year is an opportunity to turn over a new leaf. There is something satisfying about the notion of a clean slate, even if January 1 is just a date. This is the time when we resolve to move on, and leave bad habits behind, which for some includes marriage. Yes, as we toast to new possibilities on the first of January, many will be contemplating more than the end of a year....

A jury has awarded an unprecedented $100 million in the Miami priest sex abuse case involving Rev. Neil Doherty. Andres Susana, 40, had testified to his encounters with the priest while he was a 14-year-old runaway. Doherty befriended him and other teens with free food and advice, which later turned to marijuana and cocaine. Next came the sexual abuse. The large verdict in this particular Miami priest sex abuse case may be partially attributable to the fact that Susana did not sue the Archdiocese....

Perhaps a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but you don’t want to take any chances with your new small business. Your business name will often be the first thing potential clients know about your business. It may be what appears in online searches or what they find in the local Yellow Pages. Whether humorous, serious, descriptive, or abstract, naming a business is often one of the initial stumbling blocks that an entrepreneur must cross....

Last week, an Alabama jury awarded $7.5 million to a man who fell while shopping for watermelons at a local Walmart. That may seem like a lot for a simple slip and fall, but security camera footage showed several shoppers suffering similar entanglements with a pallet hidden beneath the watermelon display, and Henry Walker went from playing basketball a few times a week with his friends to needing a walker just to get around after shattering his hip....

If you’re considering filing for bankruptcy, you’ll want to come up with a few questions to ask a bankruptcy attorney before you hire one. Failing to ask the right questions – especially regarding attorney’s fees or the specifics of your case – can end up costing you, both in terms of wasted time and money. To help you get started, here are five questions to consider asking your (potential) bankruptcy lawyer:...

With the down economy, businesses these days are trying everything to get an edge. But whatever you do, be wary of defamation laws. For example: calling your rival car dealership something akin to the “Taliban Toyota” might just end up costing you millions. That’s exactly what happened in the case of Bob Tyler Toyota of Pensacola, Florida. Employees at the Toyota dealership spread rumors and slurs about Shawn Esfahani, the owner of the Eastern Shore Toyota in Daphne, Alabama....

It’s a balance that we Americans are consistently told we get wrong: weighing the responsibility of getting work done against the need for vacation, rest, and travel. We always hear how the Europeans got summer vacation right, and when we try to make it up by offering employees more paid vacation days, they’re too afraid and stressed to take advantage. So does taking care of your employees mean kicking them out of the office for at least three weeks this summer?...

The case of convicted sex offender John Gardner has put the California death penalty under a harsh spotlight. Chelsea King’s supporters are among those capital punishment proponents who have grown disillusioned with the state’s death penalty. Many legal experts share their sentiments and say the state’s capital punishment system is dysfunctional, the Associated Press reports. Executions have been on hold in California for almost four years, following a federal judge’s orders for review and reform of lethal injection procedures....