Drugs laced with fentanyl. For a while it was viewed as an urban myth. Some drug users have claimed that they only use natural marijuana, yet experience a crazy high and subsequently test positive for opioids and fentanyl. To date, no medical labs have been able to prove this claim. As you can imagine, it was difficult to find a true marijuana-only drug user. That is, until now. There are three main types of opioids:...
The City of Brotherly Love is not showing much to its small business community. At least that is the reputation that Philadelphia is gaining due to stories just like this one. On August 25, it was reported that Philly inspectors seized the truck belonging to a city favorite: The Cupcake Lady. According to city officials, the Cupcake Lady did not have the proper permit to be running her roving business in the University City neighborhood where she was currently parked....
The fiscal cliff loomed ahead and then vanished into thin air with the passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act on January 1, 2013. While the ATRA seemed to wipe away many potential tax woes, the Act had some implications for those with impending divorces. So as one Forbes writer put it, some of the provisions of the Act could put those people in the midst of a divorce over a fiscal cliff of their own....
Electronic payments are increasingly common these days, but that doesn’t mean they don’t come with risks for small businesses. When it comes to payment options, e-payments are often the preferred method for both customers and business owners. Often, all it requires is a simple click and instantly, money from a customer’s bank account is transferred to your business. With new innovations like mobile credit card readers, there seems to be no stopping the e-payment trend....
Last week the Kansas Supreme Court ruled against shipping company FedEx in their ongoing legal battle with thousands of drivers who claim they were unfairly classified as contract workers. Now, the company is facing another employment-related lawsuit, this time regarding allegations the company discriminated against deaf and hard-of-hearing employees and job applicants. The suit was announced by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Friday. What are the EEOC’s allegations, and what do employers need to know about accommodating disabled employees?...
An article in the Sun-Sentinel describes how identity thieves are taking the phrase “kicking ’em while they’re down” to a whole new level. It looks like scam artists have found easy prey in the legions of newly unemployed individuals who are now seeking searching, sometimes desperately, for employment. The article noted that job-search fraud is rising quickly in Florida, and “generating thousands of complaints a year, according to the Federal Trade Commission....
As the Trump administration ramps up its immigration reforms and enforcement, sanctuary cities and states have found themselves squarely in the federal government’s legal crosshairs. The lawsuits have been flying, and people are wondering whether immigration enforcement agents will respect churches as sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants. Although U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement designates churches as “sensitive” places to be avoided when making arrests, living in a church – or a sanctuary city or state – is no guarantee against deportation....
Facebook is unveiling a website “facelift,” aiming for a sleeker user interface. Your company may not be like Facebook at all, but this is one strategy that may be worth copying. Facebook’s goal is to make its News Feed – the site’s equivalent of a home page – more engaging for users. It will also be a plus for advertisers, something Facebook is likely hoping will increase revenue. If your business’ website is a source of direct sales, it’s definitely important to keep it up to date....
Several mugshot websites are being sued for allegedly trying to profit off the mugshots they publish, which are allegedly hurting the reputations of people who are later found innocent. According to an Ohio class action lawsuit, mugshot websites like JustMugshots.com, BustedMugshots.com, MugshotsOnline.com, and FindMugshots.com post mugshots of people after they’ve been arrested. So when you search for a person’s name on Google, for example, you may be able to find that person’s mugshot on one of these sites, reports NPR....
Gregory F. Taylor was exonerated after being wrongfully convicted of killing a prostitute. In addition to the vindication the North Carolina man may feel, Taylor also became the first man exonerated by a state mandated innocence commission. According to the New York Times, the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission is the only agency of its kind in the country. Taylor was freed after 17 years in prison or 6,149 days according to his last count....
While fighting deportation to the Dominican Republic, Pedro Tavarez was held in the Suffolk County House of Correction, where he died in October 2009 when an untreated sepsis infection caused a heart attack. Filing suit in a federal court in Boston this week, his daughter is alleging that the prison was grossly negligent, committed malpractice, and violated her father’s civil rights. In short, she claims that the jail did not uphold its duty with respect to prisoner health care....
Two former computer programmers have been indicted in the Madoff case now along with a string of others linked to a massive Ponzi scheme. According to Wall Street Journal, Jerome O’Hara, 47, and George Perez, 43, were indicted by a grand jury and charged on three counts each: conspiracy falsifying records of a broker-dealer, and falsifying records of an investment adviser. According to each of the defendants attorneys they plan to plead not guilty....
Some people will go to great lengths for money. Gore-Tex heiress Susan Gore adopted her ex-husband in order to claim a bigger stake in her family’s billion dollar inheritance. But her decision didn’t change the Delaware Supreme Court’s opinion, Reuters reports. The court ruled Susan’s adoption wasn’t enough to increase the number of company shares her family would receive. The waterproof fabric company earns $3 billion in annual revenue. Gore secretly adopted Jan Otto, her former spouse, in 2003....
It unfortunately seems that the frequency of school shootings has increased. Just yesterday, at least 17 people were killed during a school shooting in Florida. Every time there’s a school shooting, the debate on gun control comes to the forefront of the news. While this is a valid debate, it seems that more is at play than just preventing people from being able to buy guns. There may be things that parents, staff members at school, and other students can do to help prevent these tragedies in the future....
If you cannot pay your lawyer, don’t panic, don’t disappear, and don’t assume your debt will be forgotten. Lawyers often owe a lot of money for student loans and running a business means having a lot of expenses, so many practitioners do rely on every single client payment. There are different types of fee arrangements and you may be able to negotiate a situation that will work for everyone. Even rapper Lil’ Wayne talked to his lawyer about a payment plan....
As of this morning, rescue workers are still waiting to resume the effort to search for survivors of the late afternoon blast which occurred at the Massey Energy Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, West Virginia. The odds that any survivors remain are bleak. The day of the blast, 25 miners were already reported dead, two hospitalized and four still missing. WVPB repots that since the Sago Mine explosion in 2006 that killed 12 miners, new safety measures have been required....
But when you add in talking to the walls, a parent has a right to be concerned. And concerned they were–especially when they found out that Applebee’s had served the young boy a margarita instead of the requested apple juice. Taylor Dill-Reese, Dominic Wilson, and their young son are the family behind the Michigan Applebee’s alcohol incident, reports CNN. When the toddler started exhibiting the strange behavior noted above, the two adults got curious....
As widely reported and written about here, last week a high school student and his parents in the Lower Merion School District of Pennsylvania, sued the district over their alleged use of webcams onboard the school laptops issued to high school students. Today, the district responded. According to the complaint in the case, Robbins v. Lower Merion School District, student Blake Robbins and his parents allege that the schools’ ability to activate the webcams at their pleasure was a violation of privacy under the Constitution, federal statutes and state laws....
California will become the fifth state to allow physician-assisted suicide after Governor Jerry Brown signed the “End of Life Option Act” yesterday. The law, which will take effect sometime next year, will permit physicians to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients. Despite legal protections in place to prohibit misuse of the law, some remain opposed to any aid in death or dying. The Code The bill, ABX2 15, authorizes “an adult who meets certain qualifications, and who has been determined by his or her attending physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, as defined, to make a request for a drug prescribed pursuant to these provisions for the purpose of ending his or her life....
When you find out that you’ve contracted a sexually transmitted disease (STD), your first thought may be how to get justice on the person you believe is responsible. In many cases, the person who infected you may be as clueless as you were about having an STD. However, based on your state’s laws and what your partner may have known, you may be able to sue him or her over an STD infection....
