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Donald Trump’s new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced plans to rescind a six-year-old policy issued by Barack Obama’s administration that advised colleges and universities on how to handle sexual assault allegations on campus. “Washington has burdened schools with increasingly elaborate and confusing guidelines that even lawyers find difficult to understand and navigate,” DeVos told a crowd at George Mason University. “That’s why we must do better, because the current approach isn’t working....

Your business may not welcome the idea of alcohol-abusing employees as part of your workforce, but are you legally required to get them treatment? That’s what former Telemundo Chicago anchor Edna Schmidt is claiming after she was allegedly fired for being drunk on the air. According to TMZ, Schmidt says she was fired for being sauced, despite those at Telemundo being aware of her alcohol problems. She’s now suing under the Americans with Disabilities Act....

Fireworks injuries are no joke. They happen fairly often, too, especially on and around the Fourth of July. The truth is, as exciting and fun as fireworks are, they can lead to serious consequences if not used properly or carefully. So this year, have your fun, but remember to stay safe. To help you prepare, here are a few types of fireworks injuries that have happened to others – and that you will definitely want to avoid:...

As a small business owner, your profit margins are already probably thin. So when tax time rolls around, you’re probably trying to take advantage of every legally allowable tax deduction. But after already deducting your legal fees, holiday gifts, tithing, and even donuts, what’s left for you to write off? Quite a few things, actually, according to Forbes. Here are a few they highlighted for small business owners this year....

Jesse “The Body” Ventura has emerged victorious in court, to the tune of $1.8 million in a defamation case against “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle. The former pro wrestler-turned-Minnesota governor sued Kyle for publishing an anecdote in his book. Kyle claimed he “decked” Ventura after hearing him say that the Navy SEALs “deserve to lose a few,” reports St. Paul’s KSTP-TV. Before his death in 2013, Kyle denied that he fabricated the story, but a jury may have believed otherwise....

Earlier we wrote about New Jersey dad David Goldman’s continuing effort to get back custody of his son Sean, who has allegedly been kept wrongly in Brazil ever since the family went there on vacation in 2004. Well, CNN had an update noting that, despite the fact that a Brazilian court had ruled in David Goldman’s favor, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Tuesday suspended the custody order. According to the judge “taking Sean ‘in an abrupt manner’ from his home could cause the boy psychological harm....

Child support calculations is a popular question both for custodial parents who would receive the support and non-custodial parents who would have to pay. The difficulty and confusion surrounding child support calculations can partly be explained by the fact that there are no uniform national rules for how much someone has to pay. Instead, each state has its own rules on how much child support is owed, and calculating payments generally depends upon individual circumstances like how much someone makes and how many children they have....

Cosmetic surgery deaths are on the rise, and it may have something to do with the lack of proper training. As a result of doctors’ ability to perform most procedures with a general medical license, a large number of non-specialized medical professionals are reportedly moving into the more lucrative field of cosmetic surgery. Your face lift or liposuction procedure may be in the hands of an ophthalmologist, pediatrician, or even an oral surgeon....

In a sweeping victory for smartphone and tablet patents, Apple beat out Samsung in a U.S. federal court. For Samsung’s infringement of Apple’s patents, the jury gave a damage award of $1.05 billion to Apple. While this amount may sound high, Apple had sought $2.75 billion in damages, reports Reuters. If you’re wondering how the jury came up with the $1.05 billion figure, you should know that the calculation was not random by any means....

A jury award of $7 millon dollars has been awarded to the family of a Kentucky plane crash victim. This award was for compensatory damages. Whether punitive damages will be awarded remains to be seen. AP reports that the family of Bryan Keith Woordward was awarded the amount after a jury found that pilots of the airline failed to notice that they were on the wrong runway when they attempted to take off from a runway that was too short in an airport in Lexington, Kentucky....

A federal judge has temporarily blocked North Dakota’s abortion ban, the most restrictive in the nation, which would prohibit an abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detected – as early as six weeks into pregnancy. In practice, the law would bar nearly 90 percent of the abortions performed at the Red River Women’s Clinic, the state’s only abortion clinic, Reuters reports. When the ban was signed into law by Gov. Jack Dalrymple in March, he asked lawmakers to set aside money to fend off potential litigation....

Approximately 40 people were injured in a Nebraska bus crash early Thursday morning. The accident occurred around 2 a.m. just outside of Gibbon and involved two semi-trailer trucks. Before the bus crash, a semi overturned, blocking both westbound lanes of the I-80. A second truck clipped the vehicle, causing it to fall into a ditch. The Denver-bound bus then came upon the scene, swerved and crashed into the median. Most injuries were minor, and passengers were able to board a second Burlington Trailways bus soon after....

What if the government could lend money directly to the small businesses – wouldn’t that be wonderful? Would it really? President Barack Obama addressed that very question earlier this month at a town-hall type meeting in Tampa. The question was posed by small business owner, Steve Gordon, where he asked why it was so easy to lend to the large banks and the auto industry, but that small businesses have to go through their banks in order to get an SBA loan....

There is certainly an interest in being able to anonymously review products and services online: reviewers may feel more safe to be honest in their reviews, without fear of retaliation from companies or other users. Then again, anonymity can allow some reviewers to go too far, thinking there will be no consequences for the things they say online. In a recent case in California, an appeals court attempted to balance those interests, ruling that companies hosting online reviews have a right to shield the identity of anonymous posters, but posters sued for defamation can lose their anonymity....

Summer is a great time to relax by the pool or beach and take in a great book, and we have some lawyer-approved books for you to check out. You could sip a margarita and explore the inequities in our criminal justice system, or drown out your screaming kids with a good ole bit o’ fiction. Prepare to read like a lawyer, and start with one of these 10 books:...

Ride-sharing apps are Lyfting-off in Silicon Valley funding, reports Time Magazine. But before you devise a genius plan for a ride-sharing service like Lyft in your area, make sure you don’t steer into a regulatory dead-end. Sounds like a solid “peer-to-peer” business model, right? Think again. Lyft, Uber and SideCar have been hit with cease and desist letters, and were each fined $20,000 last fall by California authorities for basically functioning as taxi services without the proper permit....

Images of child cage fighting have sparked controversy in the U.K. The story might make some parents wonder: Is it safe for children to engage in cage fighting, also known as “ultimate fighting” or “mixed martial arts”? Are these types of sports with children even legal? In the U.S., there are no federal laws that specifically prohibit child boxing. About 18,000 children and teens under the age of 19 are estimated to participate in the sport in America....

Small business owners that are struggling to make ends meet sometimes need business loans - or a pawn shop. Pawn shop loans are now something that some business owners are turning to as a result of the tight economy and lack of lending. Pawning is probably easier than getting a bank loan, though the interest rates may be significantly higher. Pawn shops, including online pawn shop Pawngo.com, will evaluate your item, and e-mail you an offer about how much they are willing to loan you....

A nine-year-old student in a Louisiana elementary school allegedly had his mouth duct-taped by a substitute teacher. To no one’s surprise, the mother of the fourth grader has said she will pursue legal action against the teacher, reports NBC. The teacher has already been internally disciplined by the school. The child’s mother said that she noticed her son was upset and that he told her that he did not want to go back to school any more....

A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Jenny Olenick, a 17-year-old girl who died after wisdom tooth surgery this past April. The teen’s parents have accused the oral surgeon and anesthesiologist of negligence and medical malpractice. The two doctors reportedly failed to resuscitate the teen after her heart rate slowed to a dangerously low level. Emergency personnel were not called until she began losing oxygen. Apparently, dental-related deaths are not that rare....