Posts

The Dept. of Justice will be auditing NYPD to review how it handles New Yorkers who don’t speak English. The routine audit by the federal government will look into whether language barriers affect the filing of complaints, emergency stops, arrests and crime prevention, the New York Times reports. The review lasts for six months, and invites feedback from the community and immigrant organizations. It will result in result in recommendations for improvements....

Sometimes but not that often everyone on the US Supreme Court agrees on a topic. That is what happened last week when the eight justices had to consider government contracts for veteran-owned businesses. The nation’s highest court decided last week that the Department of Veteran Affairs must set aside more contracts to be filled by veteran-owned small businesses, and that it’s not optional as lower courts ruled. The court’s reasoning was remarkably simple and straightforward, and its decision turned on one word: “shall....

How do you know if you’ve hired an independent contractor or an employee? The IRS has a nifty list of factors to help you figure it out. It’s important to properly classify your workers as “employees” or “contractors” not only for tax purposes, but also because it dictates the type of relationship you have with your workers, Forbes reminds us. But simply calling someone an “independent contractor” on paper may not suffice, as far as the law is concerned....

If you’re injured on a bus, how much can you collect? For one California woman, the answer is $15.3 million. Maria Francisco’s verdict against a public transit district was upheld last week by a state court. Francisco fractured her spine when the AC Transit bus she was riding in went over a speed bump at 30 mph in a 15 mph zone. San Francisco’s KPIX-TV reports that the bump caused Francisco to fly into the air and land hard back on the seat; importantly, the moment of impact – and Francisco’s injury – was caught on bus surveillance video....

Air cannons and pumpkins – they go together like America and apple pie. Or, if you were attending Delaware’s world famous Punkin Chunkin competition, like oil and water. An air cannon at this year’s festival exploded, sending debris in all directions and sending one woman to the hospital with critical injuries. It is certainly a sad setback for the pumpkin-launching competition, which just re-launched itself after a two-year hiatus following an injury lawsuit from 2013....

Steven Dale Green received five life sentences with no possibility of parole for the rape and murder of an Iraqi teenager and for murdering three members of her family. Green was prosecuted in civilian court under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which allows non-military U.S. authorities to prosecute former military personnel and military contractors for crimes committed outside the U.S. As reported by the AP, Green was the last of five charged participants in the brutal gang rape and murder of a fourteen year old Iraqi girl plus her family in 2006....

Following up on the topic of tough life sentences imposed on youths, it looks like the Supreme Court may soon give a final answer on the question of whether sentences of life without possibility of parole (LWOP) imposed on teen offenders violate the Constitution. The Court today announced that it would take up the cases of Joe Sullivan and Terrance Graham, both of whom are from Florida. As reported by CNN, Joe Sullivan was sentenced to life without possibility of parole for a rape committed when he was 13 years old....

In the words of the immortal Yogi Berra, “it’s like deja vu all over again.” Without any undue levity, in an all too familiar scene, an oil rig is reported to have exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. Unlike the BP disaster where 11 workers were killed, all 13 men on the rig have been accounted for. The platform is south of Vermilion Bay, about 100 miles off the Louisiana coast, west of the site of BP’s well....

Microblading is one of the hottest trends in the beauty industry, but one woman could barely stand the heat. After her microblading artist botched one of her eyebrows, she attempted to have the error removed, only to exclaim, “it felt like my skin was melting off.” Microblading is a form of semi-permanent eyebrow tattooing that has taken the world by storm the past few years. Microblading artists draw or fill in eyebrows using a free-hand style, and then use special microblading tools to needle in the design....

In New York, choking or strangulating someone is not considered a crime and doesn’t even rise to a misdemeanor under the current law. But now a newly proposed NY bill would make strangulation a felony charge. The bill was recently introduced before the legislature to upgrade choking to a lower-level felony charge, the Ithaca Journal reports. The strangulation legislation also seems to have gained momentum after an alleged domestic-violence incident involving a top NY gubernatorial aide....

Part of President Barack Obama’s legacy will be normalizing America’s relations and diplomatic ties with Cuba, ending a half-century of hostilities between the two countries. While that opens the door for more travel and trade between the two nations, it also means that some immigration windows are closing for Cuban citizens. A two decades-old exception allowing Cubans who arrived on U.S. soil to gain legal residency, colorfully known as “wet foot, dry foot,” is coming to an end, and Cuban immigrants will be treated the same as those seeking asylum from any other country....

CNN reports that last Friday a judge may rule on whether the Oklahoma abortion law (that requires women to provide abortion online information to be posted on the internet) should continue. We wrote about this law previously on Law and Daily Life here. The Oklahoma abortion law requires that the details of women who undergo abortions in Oklahoma be posted online and viewable by the public. Under the Oklahoma abortion law, the following information about women who have abortions would be posted online: the date of the abortion, the country where the abortion took place, age of the mother, marital status of the mother, race of the mother, years of education of the mother, state or country of residence of the mother, and total number of previous pregnancies of the mother....

With fall quickly approaching, taking a leisurely stroll to watch the changing colors and enjoy the weather is something many city dwellers look forward to. If you live in Detroit, Atlanta, or Los Angeles, you may want to re-think walking the city streets. A new study uncovers the least safe cities for walking and the aforementioned cities are at the top (or bottom depending on how you look at it) of the list, reports the New York City Dot....

New U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently reversed prior Department of Justice guidance directing the federal government to reduce its reliance on private prisons to house federal inmates. While this was good news for shareholders of private prison company stocks, it looks like bad news for American taxpayers and inmates: as the DOJ conceded when it announced the phase out last year, private prisons “do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the Department’s Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same level of safety and security....

The introduction of the dashboard computer in cars has safety experts worried about distracted driving. The New York Times reports that companies such as Google and Intel plan on introducing dashboard computer technology for something called the infotainment system. The infotainment system allows drivers to use GPS systems, pull up restaurant reviews, and music. Safety experts think that the introduction of the infotainment system is a bad idea. Nicholas A. Ashford, a professor of technology and policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology told the New York Times: “This is irresponsible at best and pernicious at worst....

You want to get married on the fly, possibly in secret. But that doesn’t mean you can’t put some planning into your elopement. And if you want your secret marriage to last, in the legal sense at least, you’ll want to be prepared. Here is our best legal advice for eloping couples, from our archives: 1. Is It Legal to Elope? Step one is to make sure your marriage plan is legal....

Thousands of small business owners fall victim to scams every year. How can you stay ahead of the curve and protect your pocketbook? In an effort to help business owners recognize potential threats, the Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection recently highlighted some of the top small business scams that are out there today. Here are five scams every small business owner should beware:...

The Senate voted to give unemployed Americans some relief with an extension of time for unemployment benefits as well as an $8,000 homebuyer tax credit. This was after weeks of debating over the issue. The legislation passed with a vote of 98 to 0. According to CNN, “[t]he closely watched legislation would extend jobless benefits in all states by 14 weeks. Those that live in states with unemployment greater than 8....

Under federal and most state civil rights laws, protected classes can extend beyond the protected class to those individuals who are associated with the individuals in those classes. The association can be clear and obvious, such as between spouses, or family members, but can even be applied to friends, co-workers, and attorneys. For instance, when a person in a wheelchair and a companion are denied access to a restaurant because the restaurant does not have a wheelchair accessible entry, both will have valid discrimination claims against the business under the ADA....

What is the “War Powers Act,” and how does it play into the debate over a potential U.S. military strike against Syria? As President Obama prepares to address the nation about Syria, lawmakers and constitutional scholars have been arguing about the president’s authority to authorize a strike. This is not entirely untread territory; presidents have deployed U.S. forces to foreign lands over the past three decades: in Grenada, Kosovo, and most recently in Libya, The New York Times reports....