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“Outside salesmen” aren’t entitled to overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. That category now includes drug company sales reps, a divided U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. The High Court’s 5-4 decision means GlaxoSmithKline will not have to pay overtime to sales representatives who visit doctor’s offices to make pitches for their company’s drugs, The Washington Post reports. Key to the ruling was whether drug company representatives should be considered “salesmen” – a question that divided the Justices, and that small business owners also need to ask about their employees in the field....

An electronic cigarette exploded in a Florida man’s mouth, causing disfiguring injuries and burns, firefighters say. A defective product lawsuit is likely. Tom Holloway, 57, of Niceville, Fla., lost some front teeth and part of his tongue in the e-cigarette explosion, the Associated Press reports. He also suffered burns to his face. The blast can be blamed on the e-cigarette’s battery, firefighters said. “The best analogy is like it was trying to hold a bottle rocket in your mouth when it went off,” one firefighter told the AP....

Jobs that take employees outside definitely have their appeal, especially to the office-based cubicle crowd. But people whose line of work requires them to be outdoors in the hot summer months – from construction and agriculture workers to parks employees – face unique health hazards. So, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is offering some tips on Working Outdoors in Warm Climates. Clothing and Sunscreen. Employees who are working outside in the heat should wear light, loose-fitting clothing....

Dirty cops and scheming divorce attorneys are nothing new. But when you put them together with a private investigator, fake dates with sexy blondes, and lots of alcohol, you might feel like you’ve landed squarely in conspiracy theory territory. Christopher Butler, the mastermind behind what is being referred to as the “Dirty DUI” scam, hired women to get divorcing husbands drunk and then arrested. Butler, an ex-cop, was recently arrested and charged for theft and sale of drugs, reports the San Francisco Chronicle....

Sexual harassment in the workplace is a problem, and many instances of sexual harassment go unpunished and even unreported. At the same time, not every claim of sexual harassment is legitimate. So if you’ve been falsely accused of sexual harassment at your job, what do you do? In short, you should treat it like a criminal investigation: be quiet, hire counsel, and let the process play out and vindicate you. That may not be as easy as it sounds, so read on for a more answers to commonly asked questions regarding false sexual harassment claims....

The whole idea of having a “fixer” is that the person keeps you out of trouble and doesn’t get caught doing it. It’s safe to say that former Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen was not a great fixer. Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts of campaign finance violations, tax fraud, and bank fraud in August, admitting he worked “in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office” to influence the 2016 presidential election....

Just days before Veteran’s Day, President Obama has unveiled three new programs to help with veterans’ job searches. The new programs come as Congress is set to vote on giving businesses tax breaks for hiring veterans. Due to a scheduling issue, that bill probably won’t be passed until after Veteran’s Day, the Navy Times reports. Tired of taking fire for a stalled economy, President Obama made his veterans’ jobs push part of his “We Can’t Wait” economic recovery tour....

Women have been in the workplace a while now and the statistics are starting to reflect their successes. But there are efforts being made – in the sciences and technology particularly – to bring more women in. So is it too soon to sue women’s groups for discrimination when they network without men? Some men say no, it’s not too soon, reports Mother Jones, and they are members of the National Coalition for Men....

General Motors is setting up a compensation fund for victims and family members of those killed or injured as a result of defective ignition switches installed in the company’s vehicles. The defective ignition switches have so far been linked to at least 13 deaths and have led to the recall of millions of GM vehicles. The attorney in charge of the fund has already been presented with the names of 165 people whose families believe were killed in accidents caused by the defective switches, Reuters reports....

Not all injury lawsuits make it to trial. In fact, almost all of them are decided by out-of-court settlements, either with the defendant or an insurance company. But who decides on the settlement amount? How do you know how much your injuries, pain, and suffering are worth, and how do you get the other side to pay? Here are a few of the factors that determine the amount of car accident injury settlements....

As the owner of a small business you are literally the key to the whole company. You provide the inspiration, the final say in business goals, and the raison d’etre. You might think the most important business strategy is to maximize income or efficiency. But really what’s most important is keeping the heart of the business going strong. That means you. Work burnout is a real risk for small business owners who put more than just their time and money into their companies....

What should you do once you’ve created a trademark? As a business, your trademark is your biggest asset–it tells consumers that something in the marketplace is yours and that it lives up to the quality you strive for. It’s thus important to protect your business’ trademark. To start, a trademark is a name, word, device, symbol, or any combination therein, that is used to distinguish a company and its goods and services from another company’s goods and services....

Fishing is an incredibly relaxing and inexpensive way to spend a day off from work. But is it legal to go fishing without a license? To make things clear for future anglers out there, here are the reasons it is most likely not legal to go fishing without a license: Similar to laws on hunting and trespassing, each state has slightly different variations on who, when, and how a person can legally fish within that state....

Is it legal to refuse service because of a customer’s tattoos? The rapper known as The Game says that’s what happened to him at a restaurant in California on Sunday, though the restaurant denies this. While the popular mantra of “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service” has prepared barefooted and shirtless patrons for possibly being refused service (because of possible liability and safety concerns), what about tattoos? What should you know about your business’ practices when it comes to inked patrons who like to show off their body art?...

A lawsuit filed by two consumer advocacy NPOs and a labor union yesterday against President Trump, the United States, and several high ranking executive branch officials, is challenging the ‘1 in 2 out’ executive order signed on January 30, 2017. The controversial executive order not only ties the hands of federal regulators, but also ties their purse strings. In a nut shell, the EO requires that for every one new regulation promulgated by federal agencies, there must be two regulations repealed....

NBC News NY reports that two NY EMT workers for the fire department have been suspended for failure to act during an emergency that resulted in a pregnant woman dying. The two NY EMT workers, Jason Green, 32, of Long Island City and Melissa Jackson, 32, of Queens Village have been suspended because of their failure to act to save the life of Eutisha Rennix when she collapsed on the floor of an Au Bon Pain restaurant at the Metrotech Center in Brooklyn, where she worked as a cashier....

We posted a piece a few months ago about a new bill called the Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2009, proposed by Senator Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. Now, your business, and bank account, may be benefitting from the recent upswing in the stock market over the past months, but you may have noticed that job creation and small business financing have still been a struggle. And that you have had to face tough choices such as cutting staff or cutting health care....

In yesterday’s California Supreme Court ruling upholding Prop. 8, the state’s highest court appeared to point anyone thinking about future challenges to the new rule toward the ballot box. However, maybe it should also have pointed toward the federal courthouse. This is because the lawyers who argued on opposite sides of the monumental Bush v. Gore election decision in 2000 are joining forces to challenge Proposition 8 in federal court. Now wait a second, wasn’t the California Supreme Court’s decision the end of the line for challenging Prop....

As we wrote about in previous post called Small Business Social Media 101, keeping an eye online about what people are saying about your business is crucial. Two of the main social media sites right now are Twitter and Facebook. However, a lot of small business just don’t have the resources, skills or patience to tap into the large potential in those sites. According to the Wall Street Journal, “While business owners across the country have glommed onto social networking as a marketing tool, there are thousands of entrepreneurs who can’t seem to “get” social networking....

A California woman is suing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for “unconstitutional” sperm donor policies. The woman is in a same-sex relationship and wants to conceive a child with her female partner. The woman has a male friend who she wants to use as a sperm donor. However, FDA regulations prevent her from artificially inseminating herself with her friend’s sperm. Instead, she is being forced to use an expensive intermediary like a sperm bank....