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Cruising down the freeway, a motorcyclist zooms by between you and the car next to you. This is called lane-splitting. California may soon be the first state to explicitly make motorcycle lane-splitting legal. Lane Splitting In all other states, lane-splitting is banned. Car drivers are often annoyed to be shocked by a motorcycle flashing by them, or are frightened of accidentally hitting a motorcyclist appearing out of nowhere. However, a UC Berkeley study on lane-splitting found that the technique is safer for motorcyclist than stopping in traffic....

As a public, real-time record of what people are doing and thinking, Twitter can be a tremendous resource for gathering evidence. As police have already learned, anything you tweet can potentially be used against you in a court of law. But how can you go about gathering, storing, and getting Twitter posts or data admitted into evidence in your own criminal or civil case? Beyond the personal information made available by the words and images that a person posts on Twitter, there is a trove of other information that can be gathered from a Twitter profile as well such as:...

December was declared National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month in 2000. Since then, it has been changed to National Impaired Driving Prevention Month, reflecting a shift in how we view DUIs, DWIs, and the widening influence of legalized narcotics and prescription drugs on our ability to drive responsibly. So perhaps it’s a good time to look at how DUI laws and impaired driving enforcement have been changing recently: One of the many things state officials have had to figure out when legalizing it is how to regulate driving under the influence of marijuana....

Just hours before a planned strike was scheduled to take place, San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) reached a deal with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 (ATU) putting Northern California’s Monday morning commute back on track. Both sides made concessions including salary lock-ins in exchange for caps on healthcare and cessation of BART’s contribution to secondary pension plans, and a reduction in paid holidays. ATU, a 900-person union, rejected a contract proposal last week and was ready for its members to disembark and step away from their positions as train operators and station agents with the mass transit system....

The California Senate passed a bill last week that would force internet merchants to pay sales tax to the state for sales done within California. The purpose behind such a tax is similar to the legislative intent behind the oft-forgotten “use” tax. Essentially, a buyer can cross state lines and buy an item in a state that has less sales tax. The sales tax, as it is collected at the point of sale by the seller, is a burden on in-state companies since they are often required to collect it and to remit it to the state....

Writing a will sounds like a major undertaking. In reality, wills can be simple or complex as related to the amount of assets and instructions for distribution. But even if you are on top of it and have valid written will, there’s a chance that at some point you may want to revoke it. Marriages can come in and out of your life, parental and childrens needs can change, your own financial situation could change, and you may identify new or different charitable causes you want to donate to....

TV meteorologist Rhonda Lee was allegedly fired from a Shreveport, Louisiana television station for responding to racially charged comments on Facebook. Now, Lee’s supporters have launched online petitions to get her back on the air. The 37-year-old weather anchor worked at KTBS-TV and, in one incident, received online criticism for keeping her hair short in a natural afro, reports TheGrio.com. Lee, who is African American, says that she used to straighten her hair and keep it longer, but decided to chop it off in favor of a more natural look....

Car insurance. You know you need it, but how much? What happens if you don’t have it? What happens when you get in an accident? To help clear the air, here is a roundup of our best car insurance articles to help answer your questions. You’re paying hundreds, even thousands, of dollars per year for car insurance. Do you know what you’re paying for, or do those insurance terms fly right over your head?...

A 14-year-old boy from Central Valley California faces charges as an adult for killing 4-year-old Alex Christopher Mercado and stuffing him in a dryer. The Associated Press reports that Raul Renato Castro told investigators he drowned Alex Christopher Mercado, his 4-year-old neighbor, in a bathtub then hid the murdered boy in a dryer because the child was going to reveal the teen molested him, according to an affidavit released when he appeared in court Wednesday....

The massacre of 50 patrons at a gay club in Orlando over the weekend focused debate on many legal, political, and moral issues: homophobia, homegrown terrorism, and, of course, gun control. Depending on which database you use, there have been between 133 and 176 mass shootings in the 166 days of 2016 alone. Gun control laws are just one aspect of the horrifying shooting in Orlando, but they are a persistent discussion topic after every mass shooting....

There were certainly questions about presidential power during Barack Obama’s presidency, especially when it came to Obamacare and his executive actions on gun control. But those questions have reached a fever pitch under President Donald Trump, as he has attempted to remake the presidency in his own image. So what are the limits on the president’s power, if any? As a candidate, Trump proposed quite a few constitutional amendments. Now that he’s president, can he make them happen?...

A senseless act of violence, and tragedy, has resulted in a lawsuit against retail giant Walmart. In May 2017, the murder of Grant Nelson, an Uber driver, by 16-year-old Eliza Wasni, sparked national headlines for the utter depravity of the allegations. The lawsuit against Walmart alleges that the store was negligent in allowing the 16-year-old Wasni to walk out of the store with a stolen Machete and a stolen hunting knife....

Martina Navratilova’s ex, Toni Layton, is suing the former tennis star for, basically, dumping her. Layton is claiming millions of dollars in the suit for, as the Daily Mail describes it, “’emotional, mental and physical trauma’ she suffered after being ‘removed’ from 52-year-old Navratilova’s life a year ago.” The suit claims “the couple agreed to ’evenly share’ all funds and assets earned and obtained by either while together’ when they wed in New Hampshire in 2000....

It may be frustrating when police or prosecutors don’t take action when someone has wronged you, but you have rights to recover in civil court. Even if an investigation has cleared someone of criminal liability, you can still sue that person for the damages they’re responsible for. Pop star Justin Bieber recently learned this the hard way after being slapped with a civil suit over an alleged hit-and-run in 2013, after police determined no crime had been committed....

If you’re driving a relatively new car, chances are it’s equipped with a “black box” for car crashes, otherwise known as an event data recorder which tracks certain actions. About 96 percent of new cars sold in the United States have the boxes, according to The New York Times. And if the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gets its way, black boxes will come standard in all new cars by September 2014....

Kids are all kinds of trouble. Especially when they’re in trouble. Unfortunately for all you parents out there, you might just be liable for whatever damage Junior has caused. So if you’re letting your kid–even over the age of 18–borrow the family car this year (for spring break or even just prom), think again. It may not be worth it. Each state has passed a statute that deals with the issue of parental liability....

As Americans take to the roads for summer vacations, federal highway safety officials are reminding drivers and passengers about special safety challenges posed by 15-passenger vans, especially the risk of rollover crashes when these vehicles are fully-loaded. In fact, 15-passenger vans with 10 or more passengers have a rollover rate almost three times that of vehicles with less than five occupants, and in 2007 rollovers caused 45 fatalities in 15-passenger vans, up 73 percent from 2006 numbers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)....

Car accidents are common, which unfortunately means that hit-and-run accidents are also common. And don’t think such accidents are only between cars, either. Approximately 16% of pedestrian-car crashes are actually hit-and-runs. If you ever end up being amongst the many hit-and-run victims in this country, your first response will probably be panic. And maybe anger. But before you dwell on any of these emotions, consider doing the following things. Call for help....

When Starbucks announced it would start serving craft beer and wine along with their caffeine, it made a certain amount of sense – after all, you might need a shot or two of booze to counteract all those shots of espresso. (The coffee giant has since ended the practice, but our point still stands.) Plenty of businesses have been branching out into booze sales lately, but these five might be the oddest stores in which to get sloshed....

T.S. Eliot wrote, “April is the cruellest month.” The National Safety Council, on the other hand, declared April Distracted Driving Awareness Month. The Coalition Against Distracted Driving (CADD) has decided to commemorate the occasion by filing a $1 billion (PER YEAR) lawsuit against Apple for distracting drivers with the Apple Watch, a product that no driver has been distracted by yet. Hurry Up Please, It’s Time Apple will release its much-heralded Apple Watch to the public on April 24, 2015....