Posts

Attention tax procrastinators: You’re now just days away from the tax-filing deadline of April 15. While it probably wasn’t the best idea to wait until the very last minute to get your taxes together, there are still some tricks and surprising deductions that can potentially pay off for you. Here are our Top 10 tips for tax procrastinators: You can still get a tax-filing extension. To receive an extension for filing your federal income tax return, you must fill out and file Form 4868 by April 15....

You know the top sources of food poisoning, right? Don’t be so confident because you might be surprised by what a new CDC study shows. Food poisoning happens all the time. It sickens 48 million Americans each year, according to the CDC, but for most of us it’s not too serious. Still, about 3,000 people die every year from illnesses related to food poisoning. The biggest culprit: Salmonella bacteria, which shouldn’t be a shock to anyone....

Petty theft - don’t let the name fool you. Theft is a state crime, and therefore determining whether criminal theft is petty or grand differs by state. Generally, classification is determined by the dollar amount of the item stolen, with $500-$1,000 usually being the upper limit for petty theft. Though this is the general definition of petty theft, all generalities stop there. Punishment for petty theft runs the gamut, from probation to life in prison....

The Internal Revenue Service announced last week that it would turn to private debt collection companies to recover years-old tax debt, and not for the first time. The IRS stopped using private debt collectors in 2009 after studies showed a three-year program had little success and government employees were better suited to handle the process. So why go back now? And what do those who might owe a few bucks in back taxes need to know?...

Small businesses can find themselves in big trouble by hiring the wrong people, especially when it’s for a bookkeeping position. Take one Florida business that hired Dianna June Walton, a 28-year-old bookkeeper accused of skimming more than a quarter million dollars from her employer from 2010 to 2013, reports The St. Petersburg Tribune. Want to avoid hiring a criminal or a dud? Consider these five questions when hiring a bookkeeper:...

Philip Barry, a Brooklyn “money manager,” has been arrested and charged with orchestrating a 30 year Ponzi scheme. Another mini-Madoff whose long-run operation collapsed when too many investors needed their money back, Barry is alleged to have parted about 800 investors from about 40 million of their dollars. Rather than investing their money, he allegedly used it to fund real estate purchases, a mail order pornography business and his lifestyle....

We usually think of sexual harassment as an overly touchy boss, or the one coworker always making inappropriate jokes. That leaves one form of harassment largely overlooked: harassment by customers. One case in particular was ignored to the point that a Safeway employee was compelled to quit her job. Now she’s suing the supermarket over repeated sexual harassment from a customer. We know employers have a duty to prevent sexual harassment by employees, but does that duty extend to customer sexual harassment?...

More than 1 in 4 Americans – 28 percent, to be exact – admit to Internet “trolling,” according to an online survey conducted by research firm YouGov. Trolling is defined as “malicious online activity” directed at a stranger. Trolls like to argue, harass, or sow discord just because they like the reaction it provokes. Trolls aren’t well regarded in the online community, and in fact, contribute to an overall decline in the quality of online discussion and debate....

When a lawsuit involves a kid, the rules can sometimes be a little different. Being under the age of majority – which is set by statute in most states at 18 – children generally aren’t able to file lawsuits themselves, requiring the help of parent or a guardian appointed by the court. But what about when a child causes another person to suffer injury or property damage? If you’re injured by the reckless or intentional acts of a child under 18, can you sue someone else’s kid?...

Patients who received treatment for prostate cancer at Philadelphia’s Veterans Affairs Medical Center were victimized by a disturbing pattern of medical errors involving radiation therapy, and the situation has members of Congress calling for a federal inquiry. The stories emerging this week – as reported in the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer – detail a number of cases in which radioactive seeds were implanted into patients’ healthy organs instead of into cancerous prostates, and outline a cover-up that made sure the errors went unreported (and therefore uncorrected)....

When Ginny Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, stepped onto the political stage during the Obamacare debate, it was previously unheard of to see the spouse of a court member make a political statement. Ginny Thomas’ ties to anti-health care reform groups, including her own Tea Party-aligned Liberty Central, may now be causing her husband some problems. Seventy-four House Democrats have called for Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself should the health care reform law make its way into the Supreme Court, reports The Huffington Post....

Judging from leaks to media and porn sites (and subsequent lawsuits), it seems that the only people without sex tapes these days are people without access to a video camera. And far too often, those tapes aren’t so much “leaked” as they are nefariously posted to the internet by scorned lovers lashing out after a breakup. Known colloquially as “revenge porn,” the non-consensual posting of intimate recordings can have disastrous consequences....

You went to the doctor with inexplicable symptoms, and you were prescribed a medication. It turns out that the prescription led to complications and more illness. In fact you are in worse shape now than when you visited the doctor initially. Can you sue for this injury? Prescriptions can be the basis for a medical malpractice suit. But there’s more to malpractice than just a doctor making a mistake. The only way your suit will succeed is if you can prove that your doctor acted negligently in prescribing the medication, a claim which involves multiple elements....

Perhaps the biggest arena in the vaccination debate has been schools, and whether they’re allowed to require children to be vaccinated before attending. The argument over vaccines may seem new, but the Supreme Court, all the way back in 1905, ruled that states and school districts can make vaccination compulsory for school attendance. With the first day of school around the corner, here’s what parents need to know about the vaccine rule, any exceptions, and potential liability for not vaccinating their children....

With over 50 million freelancers out there, businesses would be foolish not to take advantage of their services. After all, not all jobs require a full-time employee. As businesses and employees are getting more flexible and agile, you may find yourself in the market for freelancers. To make sure you hire the right way, keep a few things in mind: Keep It Classy Since freelancers are not permanent employees, they’re classified as independent contractors....

Melanie Sanders was born prematurely, but otherwise healthy, in August 2016. She was given a routine eye exam along with 43 other babies that month, and less than a month later she was dead. A medical journal report published last year found that Melanie was one of 23 other infants who contracted adenovirus infections while undergoing the same eye exam in Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s neonatal intensive care unit. Melanie’s family is now suing the hospital for wrongful death, alleging she went into respiratory distress and developed a fatal bacterial infection on top of the viral illness, and that negligent medical professionals are to blame....

Marketing your business just went viral…and we don’t mean like the swine flu. The Pew Internet & American Life Project released a report showing that online video clips shared on YouTube, compared to tv shows and movies, has nearly doubled since 2006. Internet video-watching even outnumbers social networking, podcast downloading, and microblogging at sites such as Twitter. To be sure—a reported 62% of adult internet users surveyed in 2009 have watched an online video on sites such as YouTube compared to 33% in 2006, 46% have visited a social networking site, 19% have downloaded a podcast, and 11% have microblogged....

The CEO of Steiff, the toy maker known for the original Teddy bears, and the company itself have been slapped with an $80 million sexual harassment and assault lawsuit by the CEO’s former executive assistant. A CNN story listed some of the horrific conduct alleged by the former assistant (now a marketing exec), including a claim that he raped her. For fear of losing her job, she did not report that incident, and she claims to have endured various other unwanted advances for about 5 years....

Stereotypes are getting a small kick aside this week as a top democratic lawmaker is more or less pushing for a tax cut. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) is reportedly seeking to repeal a small business tax reporting requirement that has been exceedingly unpopular with business owners. Again running against stereotype, the tax reporting requirement was originally the brainchild of the Bush administration, but was put into the healthcare reform bill to help pay costs....

Families and colleagues of the Massey mine workers killed in the explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine are alleging that Massey Energy Co. used a system to alert workers of the presence of safety inspectors. Federal investigators are looking into the matter, according to comments by the Mine Safety and Health Administration on Monday. The new attention comes after testimony before the House Education and Labor Committee. “When a MSHA inspector comes onto a Massey mine property, the code words go out, ‘we’ve got a man on the property,’” alleged Gary Quarles, father of Gary Wayne Quarles, who died in the blast....