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Virginia’s attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli filed suit in Virginia hours after the health care reform became law. Cuccinelli contends that the health care law violates the limited federal powers of the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. He filed the suit purportedly in defense of a Virginia law that exempts Virginians from being required to have health coverage. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius argued in the motion to dismiss that the court should reject Cuccinelli’s lawsuit because the health care law is valid under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution....

Most have us, at some point in our daily lives or travels, have come across a shop serving its customers through bulletproof glass. Maybe it was a gas station or a convenience store, but the assumption is always pretty similar – this must be a rough neighborhood, and this place probably has a good reason for having the glass up. But Philadelphia is trying to bring the bulletproof glass down, at least in some of its establishments....

An affirmative or defensive asylum application is based on fear of persecution. An asylum seeker asks the government for protection, in the form of permission to remain in the United States legally, because they are being persecuted at home. People who apply for asylum must prove that they can’t go home because their lives are threatened based on their race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political affiliations. Unlike refugees, who apply for protected status from the United Nations before they enter the US, asylum seekers apply while on America soil....

Car accidents are distressingly common, to the tune of around 5.5 million crashes per year. These accidents kill nearly 30,000 people every year and injure millions more. Sadly, vehicle crashes have become a fact of life. Some car accidents are more common that others. Knowing which accidents are more likely can hopefully help you avoid them, and the costly damages and injures that occur. So which car accidents are the most common?...

American Apparel CEO Dov Charney has been ousted pending investigations of sexual misconduct, leaving the clothing company to pick up the pieces. The lesson for small businesses: You may need a CEO succession plan. Charney’s “highly sexualized” private life often seeped into his role with American Apparel, leading to his eventual ouster and replacement by company CFO John Luttrell, reports the Los Angeles Times. Charney’s departure also has the potential to put the company in a financial tailspin....

Even the most compassionate business owners can sometimes find themselves frustrated by their interactions with homeless people. Sleeping under overhangs and in doorways after business hours is one thing, but when homeless people begin driving away your customers during business hours or creating unsanitary conditions by using your building as a bathroom, you may need to take action. Here are three possible solutions to common conflicts between homeless people and business owners:...

Boats, many of which lack brakes, seat belts, and airbags, can be just as dangerous as cars. And a recent lawsuit in Washington details just how dangerous they can be. The surviving family members of a man who drowned in a boating accident at Lake Coeur d’Alene last summer claim the man piloting another boat wasn’t paying attention after dark and plowed right through a stationary boat, killing three people. The wrongful death lawsuit also claims the man behind the wheel, Dennis Magner, lied to investigators about who was driving at the time of the crash....

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering regulating premium cigars, much to the chagrin of cigar shops across the country. The FDA was given authority to regulate all tobacco back in 2009 and until now it hasn’t actually made new regulations for cigars. But the organization does say that it is developing a strategy to regulate tobacco products beyond those already regulated. Cigarettes and smokeless tobacco have heavy regulations and mandatory federal taxes....

Depending on what kind of business you are running and the depth of your business’s attorney’s expertise, it is rather likely that you’ll need to hire more than one attorney. For most businesses, this is more a question of “when” than “if.” Whether or not you actually need to hire an attorney into your business, or just retain different kinds of attorneys will vary based on the size of your business, and the size of the task at hand....

iPad POS systems may be replacing older, wired models in restaurants and retail businesses, leaving business owners to consider jumping on the mobile payment management train. According to Forbes, some of these iPad Point of Sale (POS) devices have even been tested in college football stadiums, able to handle more than 5,000 transactions in a matter of hours. With benefits like these, are there any legal risks to using iPad POS systems?...

When it comes to infidelity, married couples can begin acting like secret spy agencies. There’s the spouse that may or may not be cheating, hiding his or her tracks; and the spouse trying to catch the other, trying to catch them in a lie. But how much spousal surveillance is too much? According to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, auto-forwarding your husband’s emails to your address might cross the line....

Owning a business is like having a second family. No business owners ever want to believe that an employee, or worse yet a fellow co-owner, is embezzling funds from their company. But unfortunately it happens more often than is ever known, and this time, it happened to a lobster company in Maine. The other owners caught on to the shell game, but not before having tens of thousands of their lobsters sold, without ever receiving a dime....

It’s sometimes billed as a “cure” for homosexuality: psychotherapy that purports to turn gay teenagers straight. But beginning in 2013, it’ll be unlawful in California. Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law SB 1172, which prohibits so-called “gay conversion” therapy for anyone under 18, the Associated Press reports. The law takes effect Jan. 1. The bill’s author, state Sen. Ted Lieu, derided those therapy efforts as psychological abuse. Gov. Brown agreed, saying in a statement that “gay conversion” had “no basis in science or medicine and … will now be relegated to the dustbin of quackery....

A tenth person has died as a result of the devastating accident at the Reno Air Race over the weekend, with officials reporting at least another 70 injuries ranging from minor to serious. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), tasked with investigating such accidents, is currently at the site of the Reno air crash. It is raising questions about the medical history of veteran stuntman pilot Jimmy Leeward, his modified World War II-era P-51 Mustang fighter plane, and the safety of air races in general....

President Obama’s nominees for high-level Small Business Administration (SBA) positions look as they may have a clear lane to Senate confirmation in September. The changing of the guard would usher in Winslow Sargeant for the position of head of SBA’s Office of Advocacy and Peggy Gustafson for SBA Agency Inspector General. SBA’s Office of Advocacy was created in 1976 and provides an independent forum for small business within the federal government structure....

The Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to hear an international custody dispute between a U.S. military father and a Scottish mother. The international child custody dispute centers around a five-year-old girl who currently lives with her mother in Scotland. The case has wound its way through the state and federal judicial system with a state court first ruling that the girl should remain in the U.S. and then a federal court sending the girl away to Scotland, reports Reuters....

Before you say “I do,” maybe you should check whether or not you’re living in one of the states with the most divorces. The Census Bureau recently released a study that shows which states have the highest divorce rates. And, the leader for the most divorces? States in the South and the West, reports the AP. So, which states were the “winners” in the recent study? In order from highest to lowest divorce rates:...

Jakadrien Turner, the Texas teen deported to Colombia, is returning home this weekend after spending months abroad. The 15-year-old runaway was referred to U.S. immigration officials earlier this year after she gave police a fake name . The name coincidentally was that of an undocumented 20-year-old Colombian woman. Her grandmother tracked her down on Facebook and was surprised to learn she was in Bogota. Turner’s grandmother is understandably mad and wants to know how immigration officials could mistake the teen for an adult....

Generally, applying for an American passport is pretty straightforward. You just need proof of U.S. citizenship, which, if you were born in the country, could be demonstrated with a valid birth certificate. But the State Department this week acknowledged it was denying passports to hundreds and possibly thousands of Hispanics with U.S. birth certificates, and demanding additional documentation to prove they were actually born in the country. Why? According to the Washington Post, the current passport crackdown is focused on applicants born near the U....

UPS defended itself in a pregnancy discrimination case before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, in a case which business owners should keep on their radars. The case, Young v. United Parcel Service, involved pregnant UPS driver Peggy Young and a policy that refused to give her lighter duty. The High Court is set to determine whether the policy and its implementation by UPS violated federal laws on pregnancy discrimination in the workplace....