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Four Loko’s alcohol content will now be disclosed on its label as part of its deceptive advertising settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. Currently, the sweet drink claims that it contains as much alcohol as one or two cans of beer. The alcoholic drink will now be relabeled to indicate that one can contains as much alcohol as four to five cans of beer. The relabeling effort comes on the heels of lawsuits filed against Phusion Projects, the maker of Four Loko....

Beware of that “Notification of Consumer Complaint” email you may receive, purportedly from the Federal Trade Commission. It may not really be one of your customers complaining, but rather an elaborate email scam. The FTC is warning small business owners that someone is sending out an email with the subject line, in all caps, reading: “NOTIFICATION OF CONSUMER COMPLAINT.” The federal agency wants you to know that this email is not from them....

Do you use Gmail? If so, don’t expect to have a “legitimate expectation of privacy” in any email messages that you send or receive. From secure email services shutting down to Google claiming you should have no privacy rights in your Gmail messages, Internet privacy is beginning to feel like a pipe dream. Google’s privacy scandal is driving a campaign by Microsoft to win you over – but is it worth jumping the Gmail ship?...

An Indiana State Fair settlement could allow victims of last summer’s Sugarland stage collapse to split a proposed $13.2 million payout, the Associated Press reports. As of last week, 51 of 62 victims or their survivors had accepted the public-private settlement offer, according to the AP. But not everyone was happy with it. As with many settlements, claimants faced a significant legal choice in whether to accept the Indiana State Fair settlement offer....

A subpoena is a demand that a person or thing to appear or be shown in a court case. When you receive a subpoena, it is essentially a court order. If you receive a subpoena to produce something, be it a DNA sample, blood test information, computer files, photos, or medical records you are, likewise, being ordered to produce that thing. In a personal injury case each party will make a Request for Production (RFP) using the applicable rules of civil procedure....

As the demand for locally grown produce and livestock increases, more and more city dwellers are left wondering whether they can raise farm animals in their tiny backyards. Whether it’s chickens, goats, or even pigs, state and local laws may keep eager hipster Farmer Browns from realizing their agri-dreams in an urban setting. If you’re planning on raising a flock of hipster hens behind your crowded Victorian or raising tilapia in your Gotham apartment, then you’ll need to make sure that your local laws allow it....

Since March, JPMorgan Chase (Chase) has been suspending the lines of credit of thousands of small businesses. This includes businesses who missed no payments. A line of credit is a financing option with many benefits for small businesses. However, as illustrated by lenders pulling the rug from under thousands of businesses, borrowers must pay strict attention to the fine print in their line of credit agreements. Business Week reports that the suspension of thousands of credit lines by Chase came after scrutiny of the businesses’ current financial conditions....

A federal judge in Florida ruled in favor of Michael DeGraw this month, allowing him to proceed with a lawsuit filed against a local sheriff, which seeks compensation for an incident during which bipolar wife died in jail. Suing on behalf of himself and his deceased wife, Jennifer, Michael alleges that prison employees falsified documents and failed to provide adequate medical care as required by the 8th Amendment. He appears to have a pretty strong case....

A dry ice “bomb” explosion occurred in a trash bin late Tuesday afternoon at Disneyland, resulting in an evacuation from Toontown. Fortunately, nobody was injured from this blast, and the general Toontown area was reopened again to park visitors two hours later. But what responsibility would Disneyland have had, if someone were to be hurt? Here are 5 things business owners should know about liability on their premises. What is premises liability?...

Prenatal testing enables parents to make a difficult decision no one would want to face: whether to terminate a pregnancy based on a genetic defect. This testing has helped many parents but it is an imperfect science and the people who perform tests don’t always interpret results properly. In those cases, parents are faced with an even more difficult situation when a child is born with a debilitating genetic disorder. Beyond the heartache and emotional challenges, having a child with a serious disease or disorder presents practical, financial, and logistical problems....

A democracy thrives on transparency. That is why a National Public Radio report out this week about the effect of private corporations on legislation is making such a stir. A NPR investigation reports that private prisons had a major influence on the the drafting of Arizona’s controversial immigration law. The private prison industry significantly influenced the way the Arizona Immigration Law, SB 1070, was written, according to NPR. Through meetings with a group known as ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), state legislators met and exchanged ideas with prison representatives as they prepared the bill....

The passage of the new health care law makes small businesses eligible for health care cost reimbursement. Business owners are wondering how the new law will help them save money and provide affordable health care to their employees. The White House released a fact sheet on last week that offers information on how the new law will work for small businesses. Small businesses with less than 25 employees may be eligible for a tax credit that will cover more than one-third of their medical care costs for employees....

For children who have been abandoned, abused, or neglected by one or both of their parents, United States Citizenship and Immigrations Services offered a special process to obtain a green card and seek lawful permanent residence in the U.S. Called a Special Immigrant Juvenile classification, it applied to undocumented and unmarried children under 21 years old who had been separated from or hurt by their parents. But recent policy changes have many at-risk immigrant youth wondering about their status....

A federal appeals court has ruled that, under New York law, Starbucks baristas must share their tips with shift supervisors because the company’s tip-sharing policy is legal. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court’s ruling, finding that Starbucks’ shift supervisors perform similar duties as that of baristas in the Empire State, The Associated Press reports. This decision, a loss for the baristas, was issued Thursday. But could yet another appeal be brewing?...

Starbucks employees can now show off their tattoos at work after a change in Starbucks’ customer-facing tattoo policy. Before the switch, baristas and other workers who were dealing with Starbucks customers would have to cover their tattoos, resulting in lots of sweaty dudes in long sleeves. Now, Forbes reports that Starbucks has lifted this workplace tattoo embargo, allowing all inked skin to breathe free – except face tattoos. Should your company drink the Koolaid pumpkin spice latte and follow Starbucks’ lead?...

Nearly every day brings another story of an overturned conviction, and the list of exonerated death row inmates adds several names every year. Just last week, John Bunn, wrongfully arrested and convicted of killing a corrections officer when he was just 14, was exonerated based on tainted evidence produced by a detective who worked on the case. And while it is nice that wrongfully convicted men and women are exonerated and released from prison, what about compensating them for the mistakes made in their prosecution?...

A judge sentence Stephanie Ragusa to 10 years in prison and said she broke student-teacher trust by preying on young boys. Stephanie Ragusa, a 31-year-old teacher was convicted of having sex with two of her students and labeled as a sexual predator, ABC News reports. The two boys, ages 14 and 16, were students she met while teaching middle school. The mother of the 14-year-old boy said she felt like Ragusa targeted her victims....

Even during a holiday weekend, dumb criminals take no break, and this week features various criminally poor oversights: I know I’m forgetting something… Christopher Hoff of Connecticut reportedly forgot about his dental appointment and ended up getting arrested. Yeah, he was seriously that forgetful, he got to his appointment 5 days late. Oh yeah, he also forgot something else … his clothes. Yeah, this Hoff (not to be confused with The Hoff) allegedly showed up naked for his dental appointment, promptly resulting in a scream from the receptionist....

The families of two Virginia Tech shooting victims may have won an $8 million jury award in mid-March, but the chances that they recover anything close to that amount from the university are looking slim. Attorneys for the state have asked a judge to reduce that award to $100,000 each. The request is based on Virginia’s damages cap law. The Tort Claims Act limits the state’s wrongful death liability to either $100,000 per claimant, or the maximum of any applicable insurance policy – whichever is greater....

According to his lawsuit filed in a U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, Florida, Anthony Kelley missed a shift at a local Walmart because he took his son to the doctor after the boy began vomiting up blood. Two weeks later, he was out of a job. Kelley’s lawsuit against Walmart accuses the company of “a pattern and practice of terminating employees for taking necessary time off to attend family emergencies,” and it isn’t the first time the company has been charged with punishing employees for taking time off....