Los Angeles residents and some of its police force may sleep better tonight; an arrest has been made in the “Grim Sleeper” serial murder case. The L.A. district attorney’s office is confirming that the man thought to be behind the homicides of eleven people since 1985, Lonnie David Franklin Jr., 57, is in custody. The stories behind the grim crimes were followed for four years by LA Weekly reporter Christine Pelisek....
“We’ve made it clear that where legitimate claims are made, we will be good for them,” said BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward on Monday. But how much is BP really on the hook for? Federal law could limit BP damages beyond cleanup costs to $75 million. Such a limitation would likely keep BP from paying for much of the impending damage caused by the oil spill. As TPMMuckraker reports, the primary law at issue here is the 1990 Oil Pollution Act, passed after the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska....
The Supreme Court’s recent decision to abolish the sentence of life without parole for youthful offenders in nonhomicide cases has prompted California lawmakers to look at more reforms needed in juvenile sentencing. The state has about 250 lifers who as teenagers participated in crimes involving homicides. SB 399 is new legislation that could give them a second chance, the Associated Press reports. SB 399 would give individuals sentenced as youths to return to their communities after serving at least 25 years and a thoughtful review to determine if they still pose a threat....
School sex abuse lawsuits just got a whole lot easier to file in California. The state’s highest court has ruled that parents and students can sue school districts for negligently hiring, retaining and supervising abusive employees. The ruling involves the 2007 molestation of a 15-year-old boy by a female guidance counselor at Golden Valley High School in Santa Clarita. The school district argued that its administrators could not be held responsible for the woman’s actions as they were outside the scope of employment....
After a manhunt that lasted over a week, Christopher Dorner has now been confirmed dead, reports The New York Times. Dorner, a former LAPD officer, is believed to have killed four people earlier this month. His killing spree was allegedly the product of a vendetta he had against the LAPD, according to a manifesto he posted online. With Dorner now dead, there are many questions left unanswered. One critical legal question is whether the victims and their families can sue Dorner’s estate for wrongful death....
To complete our National Small Business Week series on business structures, we take a look at the most common, the sole proprietorship. With a vast majority of U.S. businesses owned by one person, let’s look at the reasons why, and also the reasons why some successful sole proprietorships later shift to other business structures. According to I.R.S. data, as of 2006, there were more than 22 million non-farm sole proprietorships in the U....
Federal officers have arrested SPC Bradley Manning of the US Army in connection with the Wikileaks case. Manning, 22, is an intelligence analyst who allegedly leaked gun camera video footage to the site wikileaks.org. The video shows a US Apache helicopter attack that left several civilians dead, including two employees of Reuters. Wikileaks.org edited the anonymously submitted footage into a video entitled “Collateral Murder,” and released it in April of this year....
There are very few times then you must hire an attorney, but many times when you need to hire one. Which side do commercial leases fall on? The answer to that depends on you and your situation. Commercial leases are viewed under the law differently than residential leases. With residentials, it is assumed that you don’t have an attorney available to review various terms, and so the agreements are fairly standardized, and there are numerous consumer protections available under the law....
Balancing the rights of children in school can be difficult. On the one hand, they don’t forfeit all of their constitutional rights just by walking onto school grounds. On the other hand, schools have an interest in maintaining a safe educational environment for all students. So where does forcing a 12-year-old student to take off his underwear and bend over in front of the vice-principal, a school resource officer, and three classmates fall on that scale?...
The whole point of paying those homeowners insurance premiums is so that if something goes wrong you can file a claim and have the damage covered. But it’s not always that simple. In an ideal world your insurance company would always be willing to pay for any damage that occurs. But in reality you may have to deal with some push-back over what the insurance company is willing to cover....
A lawsuit, surely to be the first of many stemming from the April 5 explosion at the Massey Upper Big Branch coal mine, was filed on April 15. A widow of one of the 29 miners who lost their lives in the blast has sued Massey Energy and its operating subsidiary, Performance Coal, for the wrongful death of her husband. However, MSHA Administrator Kevin Stricklin would like to make it clear that the Administration is not in any way targeting Massey with more than the normal amount of inspections or violation notices....
Foreclosure Fraud is causing the Attorney General to investigate some Florida-based law firms to determine whether clerical error or intentional fabrication is the cause of growing problem. Foreclosures have been soaring since the economic downturn, however some of these foreclosures are said to be the product of fraudulent paperwork filed by banks seeking to prematurely foreclose on a property. According to the St. Petersburg Times, law firms working for the banks fabricated necessary documents, including backdating assignments and falsifying notary seals in order to expedite the foreclosure process on many of their clients....
After a rather gross Golden Corral video went viral, a manager at one of the buffet chain’s franchise locations has been fired. Employee Brandon Huber posted a two-minute video that showed some of the restaurant’s practices went completely against protocol. Huber’s video showed raw burger patties and baby back ribs, placed on trays right next to the outdoor trash bins behind the restaurant. “This hamburger meat, look at all these flies, this is disgusting, all this food,” Huber said in the video, which he uploaded to YouTube....
A new report on holiday decoration injuries finds that “decking the halls” leads to a seasonal spike in hospital emergency-room visits. And the number of injuries continues to rise. More than 15,000 festive folks sustained holiday decoration-related injuries requiring ER treatment in 2012, according to new estimates by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. It’s the fourth consecutive year the numbers have increased. To spread your holiday cheer without suffering an injury, keep these five tips in mind:...
All parents want to protect their children and keep them safe. And with the first day of school fast approaching, many parents are wondering how safe their children’s schools are. While the vast majority of kids will attend public school injury-free, the school environment carries some risk of injury. Here are the biggest concerns: School Violence The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Department of Education, and the U....
Are you going to be late in filing your W-2 forms with the IRS? If so, what can you do? As you probably know, any business that pays more than $600 per year to an employee (in cash or noncash payments) and has been withholding income, Social Security or Medicare taxes from that employee, must file a W-2 form for each employee. These forms should have been sent to employees by February 1....
Say what? That may have been your reaction the first time you tried to decipher a legal document, state code section, or correspondence making use of legalese, the specialized language used by lawyers, judges, lawmakers, and others in the legal field. Each week, our series Legalese From A to Z takes on some of the more important bits of legalese, one letter of the alphabet at a time. This week, we take on five legal terms that start with the letter “S”:...
Dozens of lawsuits being filed this week over the 2007 Interstate 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis represent the largest wave of litigation yet over the tragedy. The claims have been filed against two companies that played a role in the inspection and repair of the bridge. The August 1, 2007 collapse of the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis killed 13 people and injured 145 more. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, this week’s suits – filed on behalf of almost 80 victims, survivors, and family members – accuse two companies of wrongdoing in connection with the collapse:...
Our nation is officially recognizing Mother’s Day for the 100th time this year, and it has been a long and interesting century. Why do we celebrate Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of May? And who came up with this idea anyway? While Mother’s Day is now a fairly commercialized gift-giving holiday, it began as a remembrance for a pacifist activist who died over a century ago. According to National Geographic, Anna Jarvis began the observance of Mother’s Day in 1908 to commemorate the work of her own mother, a woman who worked during the Civil War to promote peace, and others like her....
Maintaining your reputation in the digital age is no easy task. One wrong move can stick with you for the rest of your life. You can take proactive steps, like being careful about what you post and setting up Google Alerts to monitor your name. But what if someone hacks into one of your accounts and assumes your identity? California is considering a bill, authored by State Senator Joe Simitian, that would outlaw online impersonation....
