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A Rhode Island school has reportedly gained concessions from teachers and reversed course after firing its entire staff in February. The teachers union and the school district have reached a tentative agreement that would rehire the fired teachers. Rhode Island District Fires All 74 of Its High School Teachers (ABC) Rhode Island School To Rehire Fired Teachers, Shelving Drastic Plan (CS Monitor) Race to the Top Finalists Announced (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life) Not For Teacher: Schools Struggle Nation Wide (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life) Contract Negotiation and Formation (provided by Feldman, Fox & Morgado, P....

California is set to increase its minimum wage to $10 an hour by 2016 under a bill passed by the legislature. The bill, which Gov. Jerry Brown says he will sign, would increase the minimum wage for hourly workers from the state’s current rate of $8 an hour to $9 in July 2014, and to $10 by January 2016. But what calls for the increase? The goal of the California bill is to update the minimum wage rate to one that reflects rising costs of living and inflation....

Entry Without Inspection, or EWI, is a term of art in immigration law and it means what it sounds like – that a person has entered the country without an inspection. Foreign nationals must get permission to enter the United States and must present themselves to an authority at a port of entry. Even if you have a visa to visit, obtained before your travels, you must nonetheless inform American authorities of your arrival....

Living in the 21st century digital world is nearly inescapable at this point. Digital assets abound and can include some unexpected items that may actually possess some unexpected value. Don’t believe it? A digital trading card of Hans Solo, that was recently released, goes for $225. Digital assets can include items that have real, transferable monetary values, like online bitcoin accounts, or simply items that have high sentimental value, such as collections of family photos....

Jesse William Burley was decapitated by fireworks in a freak Fourth of July accident over the holiday weekend. Burley, 41, of Fargo, North Dakota, was lighting large fireworks in his neighborhood, reports MSNBC. One of his neighbors, Chris Hanson, had spoken to Burley minutes before the accident. He had already set off one large firework that caused a large bang and set off visible shockwaves from the area, reports MSNBC. It was the second set of fireworks that turned out to be fatal....

The new year is upon us and your small business is brimming with potential. But with many legal issues on your mind – like employment law questions and vendor contract concerns – you may not know where to begin. Rest assured, we’ve got five areas of improvement for businesses that could help you chart a fearless foray into 2014. Here are five legal new year’s resolutions for business owners: For extra help on how to craft new strategies or explore ways to fuel growth, consider kicking off 2014 with a consultation with an experienced business attorney in your area....

Finding a disability lawyer online means looking at a lot of lawyer websites. But with so much on your mind already, it’s easy to miss little details about your new potential attorney. Here are five things not to miss when scoping out a prospective disability attorney’s website: Disability attorney and law firm websites have a lot of content, so it may be easy to miss all the accolades, awards, and memberships that a firm can boast....

Apple recently unveiled its new product line, including the Apple Watch Series 4. One of the watch’s features is an auto-dial 911 call if the wearer has been unresponsive for a set amount of time. Though this is an opt-in feature, if users are over the age of 65, it is an opt-out. The 4th Amendment protects people from the unlawful search and seizure of a premise, whether it is a home or a car or otherwise, without a warrant....

We might not be living in Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ or the film Gattaca quite yet, but with every passing day, we seem to be getting closer. As science and medical technology advance in the areas of artificial conception and designer babies, legal issues are often the barrier that prevent new tech from being used. This is also true for artificial wombs. While only observed by a minority of countries throughout the world, the scientific community follows, and many governments enforce, what is known as the 14-day rule....

Legislation designed to require equal insurance coverage for those with mental and physical illnesses has caused controversy in Washington. The Obama Administration has issued rules regarding a 2008 law that insurance companies and employer groups say goes too far. They argue that the mental health costs of employers and patients both would skyrocket. The 2008 law was designed to put an end to the insurance practice of charging higher co-payments and deductibles as well as limiting benefits for those with mental health problems and substance abuse issues....

Bounce house injuries send 30 children to hospital emergency rooms every day, a new study finds. That’s nearly 11,000 per year, the Associated Press reports. If you’ve been to a child’s birthday party recently, you may have seen the ubiquitous inflatable bounce house in the front lawn. Kids can’t seem to get enough of them, and parents can’t seem to resist renting, or even buying, these dressed-up trampolines. So to no surprise, researchers found that an increasing number of children are getting hurt by hopping around in bounce houses of all shapes and sizes....

Employment contracts are written or implied agreements between employees and employers setting forth the terms of a worker’s employment. But what happens when one of these contracts is breached? An employment contract can be breached by either an employee or an employer. A breach occurs when one side fails to live up to the obligations provided by the contract, such as when an employer wrongfully discharges an employee in violation of a valid employment contract....

You work from home but have an employer. One day, while at home, you trip over the dog running to answer the phone, and it is a work call. You’re injured from the fall and apply for workers’ compensation. Will your claim be denied? You can get workers’ compensation if you work from home, but the location may complicate your claim. State statutes vary, and each claim is decided based on the specific details involved, so it is difficult to say in the abstract what will happen....

Chicago pizzeria and beer garden Bottled Blonde first gained notoriety with a page-long dress code outlawing, among a litany of items, “plain white tees, long tees, denim, flannel (not even around one’s waist) or zippers on shirts,” “Jordans, Nike Air Max or Air Force Ones,” or sports jerseys, and “Hawaiian, tie dye, floral, skull prints or anything else obnoxious.” The restaurant/bar/nightclub is now getting headlines for its fight against the city’s liquor commission, claiming the revocation of its liquor license contravened state laws, which Bottle Blonde also contends are unconstitutional....

CJ the chimp is leaving Las Vegas, a move that was expedited by the animal’s escape on Saturday – her second escape in a month. CJ, a female chimpanzee, and her mate Buddy both escaped from their enclosure in a residential neighborhood in July. Police shot and killed Buddy when he got dangerously close to spectators, and took CJ down with a tranquilizer dart, the Las Vegas Sun reported. Saturday’s escape also ended with a tranquilizer dart....

Like it or not, Americans are thinking about and searching about all things divorce. “Divorce” was FindLaw.com’s most searched legal term of 2010, which is no surprise given that about half of all marriages in the United States end in divorce. More and more people are turning to the internet to investigate divorce laws, trying to limit the financial impact of divorce in a stunted economy. In addition to divorce laws, people are actively searching for related topics on FindLaw....

A nurse who contracted Ebola from the first U.S. patient to be diagnosed with the disease back in 2014 settled her lawsuit against the hospital she worked in last month. While the details of the settlement remain confidential, typically, when a settlement is announced like this, it means the plaintiff won. The nurse’s lawsuit alleged that the hospital was negligent in training staff to handle an Ebola diagnosis, and failed to provide the proper safeguards for employees....

Popular file-sharing website Megaupload has gone dark, but not in protest of SOPA. Feds shut down Megaupload on Thursday, and accused the site of violating Internet piracy laws in a so-called “Mega conspiracy.” Megaupload’s alleged piracy cost copyright holders more than half a billion dollars in revenue, while raking in $175 million in illegal profits, the Justice Department claims in its indictment. It’s such a big deal, some Megaupload executives and the website’s founder – who goes by the name Kim Dotcom – were arrested in New Zealand at the Justice Department’s request, the AP reports....

Hooters is being sued in federal court by a former employee who alleges that she was forced to quit her job when her appearance changed after brain surgery. After having a cranial mass removed, former Hooters waitress Sandra Lupo returned to work with buzz cut hair and a healing scar, ABC News reports. When she said it was too painful to wear a wig, Lupo was allegedly pushed out of her job....

Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. But just how did MLK Day become a national holiday? Since the federal holiday’s beginning in 1986, Americans have set aside the third Monday in January to reflect on the life and accomplishments of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who would have turned 85 this year. But the road to creating MLK Day was not so smooth. In honor of the revered civil rights leader’s great accomplishments, here’s a look back at how Martin Luther King Jr....