By Rob Spahr / NJ.com Follow on Twitter Students at six Monmouth County high schools may soon have to submit to random drug searches. The Asbury Park Press reports that officials from the Freehold Regional High School District – which includes Colts Neck, Freehold, Freehold Township, Howell, Manalapan, Marlboro high schools – are reviewing district policy to see if random searches should be authorized. The potential policy change follows the arrest of Tinton Falls resident Shawn Hannon, an assistant baseball coach and paraprofessional at Manalapan High School, as part of a drug sweep that netted more than two dozen arrests  [ Read More ]

The city of St. Paul denied Rasmusson’s invasion-of-privacy allegations and any liability for her claims, but said it agreed to settle in order “to avoid the uncertainties and costs associated with continued litigation of this matter.”A former police officer who filed invasion of privacy suits after fellow cops illegally accessed her driver’s license record more than 400 times just to get a peek at her, will receive more than $1 million in compensation according to settlements reached in several of the suits. The Minneapolis City Council has agreed to pay Anne Marie Rasmusson $392,000, on top of a $280,000 settlement  [ Read More ]

Every October, we bring special awareness to an issue that plagues our communities, our families and even our workplaces—domestic violence against women. For more than 1 in 3 women (35.6%) in this country, the impact of domestic violence is felt by more than just the victim. Ending this devastating reality has been a priority for the Administration.  During his first year in office, Vice President Biden announced longtime advocate Lynn Rosenthal as White House Advisor on Violence Against Women—a newly created position. And President Obama called on the executive heads of federal agencies (as leaders and model employers) to establish policies  [ Read More ]

By Janet Patton — jpatton1@herald-leader.com Kentucky – A former employee of Stoner Mill Farm in Bourbon County filed suit Monday in U.S. District Court in Lexington against Stoner Mill, attorney Richard Getty, and Albert W. Borne, a Lexington private investigator. E. Scott Laney alleged in the suit that in June he was questioned by Getty and Borne about documents claimed to be missing from Stoner Mill. Laney said he had no contact with the documents. They allegedly pressed him to take a lie detector test; Laney did not and was fired. Laney alleged in the suit that the action violated  [ Read More ]

by Ani Barsamian, JD Posted In: Legal Malpractice We’ve all heard and seen some crazy and ridiculous stories about people posting inappropriate pictures on Facebook. Many people post their entire life on Facebook, from their wedding day, to their dog, to their breakfast lunch and dinner, to their child’s birth, to their kids first day at school, to pictures of them in their bikinis! Although these pictures are sometimes out of place, I can’t hold it against them. They are allowed to post their own pictures on their own Facebook pages. However, what gets to me the most is when  [ Read More ]

By Piper Weiss, Shine Staff | Fashion It takes hundreds of employees, thousands of hours and millions of dollars to launch a mass market lingerie line. And one blogger to take it all down. I never thought they would pull the Geisha outfit off the market,” Nina Jacinto tells Shine. “I imagine there were a number of factors that went into that decision.” Two weeks ago, Jacinto, a 26-year-old Bay Area blogger and non-profit development manager, most likely became one of those factors. It all started here. “I saw a link to [Victoria's Secret's Go East] line on the blog,  [ Read More ]

The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission is requesting people posing for driver’s license and ID photos to use less facial expressions for security reasons. What do you think about this policy? (09/20/12) EDISON – The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission is requesting people posing for driver’s license and ID photos to use less facial expressions for security reasons. The MVC is using facial recognition software to help weed out people with multiple licenses and IDs that may be used for fraud and identity theft. In order for the software to be effective, the camera needs to see faces clearly without  [ Read More ]

Preventive Medicine | September 12, 2012 By now, everyone is probably familiar with Dawnmarie Souza’s dispute with American Medical Response, where the National Labor Relations Board sided with an emergency medical technician’s right to bad-mouth her supervisor on Facebook (the case eventually settled), as well as the three memoranda issued by the NLRB’s Acting General Counsel on social media issues. All employers have had difficulty placing appropriate controls on employees’ use of social media while trying not to run afoul of the NLRB, but the situation is even more complicated for healthcare employers, who must be concerned about medical malpractice,  [ Read More ]

NEW YORK — The New York Police Department has, for the first time, laid out rules for using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter during investigations. New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly issued a memo that makes it OK for cops to register fake aliases to cruise social media, as long as they keep the department informed. The five page memo says officers involved in probes involving social media may register their aliases with the department and use a department-issued laptop whose Internet-access card can’t be traced back to the NYPD, the New York Daily News reports. Trolling  [ Read More ]

The Huffington Post  |  By Kathleen Miles A Southern California family decided to splurge on first-class plane tickets for the first time but were denied entry onto the plane because their son has Down Syndrome, they claim. Joan and Robert Vanderhorst had flown without issue with their 16-year-old son Bede, who has Down Syndrome, at least 30 times, Robert told the New York Daily News. This time, on a “lark,” they decided to spend an extra $625 to fly first class. “My wife said, ‘Oh Bede’s never flown first class. He’ll be so excited,’” Robert recounted. And yet, while the  [ Read More ]

By Sylvia Bokor – The Right to Work clause came into existence in 1935, embedded in the Taft-Hartely Law.  It means that (a) employees may not be forced to join a union, that (b) employers need not hire only those who agree to join a union, and (c) that employers need not fire employees for failing to join a union or pay union dues. For over half a century, the clause was ignored.  Union bosses and their political allies forced employers to fire those who did not join a union or pay dues to a union, and they forced employees  [ Read More ]

August 18, 2012 Right to Work and Individual Rights By Sylvia Bokor The Right to Work clause came into existence in 1935, embedded in the Taft-Hartely Law.  It means that (a) employees may not be forced to join a union, that (b) employers need not hire only those who agree to join a union, and (c) that employers need not fire employees for failing to join a union or pay union dues. For over half a century, the clause was ignored.  Union bosses and their political allies forced employers to fire those who did not join a union or pay  [ Read More ]

By ANNIE RAMOS Aug. 20, 2012 The father of a recent high-school graduate who has been denied a diploma because she said “hell” in her valedictorian speech accused her Oklahoma principal of bullying his daughter. “She became a senior and he constantly picked on her,” Kaitlin Nootbaar’s father, David, said of Prague High School principal David Smith. “I thought bullying wasn’t supposed to be allowed in school.” Neither Smith nor superintendent Rick Martin responded to messages asking them to comment, although Martin told KFOR-TV in a statement that, “This matter is confidential and we cannot publicly say anything about it.”  [ Read More ]

WASHINGTON — In the first public accounting of its kind, cellphone carriers reported that they responded to a startling 1.3 million demands for subscriber information last year from law enforcement agencies seeking text messages, caller locations and other information in the course of investigations. The cellphone carriers’ reports, which come in response to a Congressional inquiry, document an explosion in cellphone surveillance in the last five years, with the companies turning over records thousands of times a day in response to police emergencies, court orders, law enforcement subpoenas and other requests. The reports also reveal a sometimes uneasy partnership with  [ Read More ]

Con Ed: It’s not right to risk New Yorkers’ health just to turn up the heat on workers. End the lockout and keep the city cool. In the midst of a crushing heat wave, Con Ed has locked out 8000 workers who should be on the job maintaining the power system so the AC can stay on, just when it’s needed most. Management broke off contract negotiations when workers wouldn’t agree to steep cuts in pensions and healthcare. Con Ed is putting New Yorkers at risk for a blackout, just to slash workers’ benefits. Not cool. Heat waves like this  [ Read More ]