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The California Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Citizens Redistricting Commission’s new State Senate maps on Friday. The Court’s decision means that Democrats will likely secure a two-third majority in the State Senate come fall, which would allow them to pass tax bills without Republican cooperation, reports The Sacramento Bee. The Citizens Redistricting Commission – a new body created through a 2008 ballot measure to adjust voting districts after the decadal census – released new voting district maps in August 2011....

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to have Zuckerberg money – $62 billion and counting? That’s not going to happen for many reasons, but it’s a segue to this idea: Have you ever imagined what it would be like to be Facebook’s general counsel? Alright, that’s a stretch, too, but we’re getting to the point. There are a lot of challenges that come with all that money and responsibility, and you may not want them....

The party’s over for Florida kids hoping to hop into a pool with alligators. The state says so-called “gator parties” are unsafe, for both children and adults, the Tampa Bay Times reports. Who came up with this wild idea? The owners of Alligator Attraction in Madeira Beach, Fla., offered the reptiles for rent at local pool parties. Small gators, less than 4 feet long with names like Cupcake and Burger, swam alongside children in backyard pools at a cost of $175....

Despite predictable resistance and noise from the tobacco industry, the California legislature overwhelmingly passed a pair of bills that raised the smoking age from 18 to 21 throughout the state and broadened regulation of vaping, e-cigarettes, and other tobacco-related products. Governor Brown signed the legislation without comment and without delay. Public health advocates have generally voiced approval for the move. Cynical lawyers also approve as droves of late teens stand to violate the new law post-haste....

The Volokh Conspiracy says get into bankruptcy practice like yesterday. Fees spiral ever-upward. PhilaLawyer explains on Bitter Lawyer why personal injury is your salvation. Litigators need to have fun too: The Namby Pamby reminds you to get all literary and really explore the subtext when you’re drafting that reply brief. As previously noted here on GA and elsewhere, Skadden offers sabbaticals to its associates, reminding New York Times readers that lawyers make a lot more than they do....

Do people want to date lawyers? Unfortunately, the media’s portrayal of folks in the legal sector is often more than a bit off, and it’s a bit dismaying for some to realize that we’re not all as beautiful as Harvey Specter. It might be more realistic to ask how many times has “Boston Legal’s” Denny Crane been married now? Also, let’s not forget in “Sex & the City” where Miranda, at a speed-dating event, receiving blank stare after stare when she revealed that she was a successful attorney who’d graduated from Harvard Law School....

Did you know that in 1978, Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes tackled a Clemson linebacker after he made a crucial interception in what would become an Ohio State loss? Hayes was later fired by the university. So it comes as little surprise that the Jets came down hard on Sal Alosi, after the coach intentionally tripped Miami Dolphins player Nolan Carroll during the Jets vs. Dolphins game. Alosi has been fined $25,000 and suspended without pay for the remainder of the season for his actions, effective immediately, including playoff games, ESPN reports....

An Indiana woman who was supposed to spend just two days in jail wasn’t released until five months later. Now a lawsuit may soon be filed over what the court called “a big screw-up.” In what was supposed to be a “slap on the wrist,” Destiny Hoffman, 34, of Jeffersonville, was sentenced to just 48 hours behind bars – but because of a judge’s error, she actually served 154 days before being released Thursday, the News and Tribune reports....

Can your client refuse a state-ordered paternity test on privacy grounds? E.M.’s mother receives public assistance from San Diego County on behalf of E.M. To offset public expense, the mother had to assign to the County the right to any child support up to the amount of that assistance. The County then had an interest in finding E.M.’s father. The County filed a complaint against Michel Mason in 2010 to establish Mason as E....

Mark Lucian Feigin heaped anti-Muslim comments on an Islamic organization’s Facebook page. “The more Muslims we allow into America the more terror we will see,” he posted. A few days later, he added: “Practicing Islam can slow or even reverse the process of human evolution.” When he was charged with a felony hate crime, he said he was just doing the same thing Donald Trump did during the election. The difference was, Feigin also made death threats....

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is rewarding innovation, one snowman patent at a time. Inventor Ignacio Marc Asperas of Melville, New York discovered how to build an ultimate snowman and patented his idea. He was granted the patent rights on Monday. The newly-patented snowman building procedure was officially dubbed the “apparatus for facilitating the construction of a snow man/woman.” And no, this patent wasn’t a joke. In fact, Asperas wrote in one of the first lines of the patent application, “The following is not a joke patent....

A man who had sex with an inflatable raft was arrested at his home in Hamilton, Ohio. Edwin Charles Tobergta admitted to the indecent acts and said that he has problems, the Journal News reports. The alleged sexual acts with the raft took place in the alley behind Tobergta’s house, according to the Journal News. Tobergta, 32, was spotted getting frisky with the pink inflatable raft by the raft’s owner early Sunday morning....

Judgment of the United States Court of International Trade classifying petitioner’s bottle and jug wraps under subheading 4202.92.90 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) is reversed because the subject articles “organize, store, protect, or carry food or beverages,” the proper classification is HTSUS subheading 3924.10.50. Read Outer Circle Prod. v. US, No. 09-1179 Appellate Information Appealed from: United States Court of International Trade Decided January 5, 2010...

In a surprising move, former Bush Solicitor General Paul Clement has left King & Spalding after the firm announced that it would withdraw as counsel representing House Republicans in defending the Defense of Marriage Act. While Clement and others are focusing on the politics behind the decision, more attention should be brought to the limiting conditions that the engagement contract placed on the firm’s employees. On Monday, K&S’s chairman announced that the firm had filed a motion to withdraw as defenders of DOMA, citing an inadequate vetting process, reports The Atlantic....

Four NYC strippers may not have had hearts of gold, as they’re currently charged with drugging and cleaning out some wealthy customers. The Gotham strippers were arrested after an eight-month investigation by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the New York Police Department into allegations that “dancers had been drugging men” at two strip clubs: Scores in Manhattan and Roadhouse NYC in Queens, reports the New York Daily News. How did these strippers go from nip tip to drug slip to credit card dip?...

A South Carolina threesome came to blows over the weekend when two of the three men involved began arguing over which was the higher paid escort. Police say that 33-year-old Michael Gordon was spending the evening with 18-year-old escort Austin Adams at a Spartanburg gay club when the two met Douglas Tench, who was in town from Charlotte. The three men decided to retire to the hot tub on the back deck of a house where Gordon dog-sitting, reports the New York Daily News....

After a month-long search that seemed to frustrate the president, Trump named attorney Christopher Wray to the head the FBI. Trump tweeted his choice even as Comey told the Senate the president lied when he fired him over the investigation into Trump’s contacts with Russian officials during his run for the White House. Wray, a veteran of Washington and defending clients against charges of white-collar crimes and political scandal, will step into a job that apparently nobody wanted in the heat of the month-long moment....

Things keep going from bad to worse for Theranos, the disgraced medical technology startup. The company raised millions of dollars and earned a $9 billion valuation based on promises that its technology could detect a host of ailments through a simple, low-cost blood test that required no more than a prick of the finger. Three years ago, Walgreens entered in to an agreement with Theranos, to bring Theranos’ blood tests to the chain’s pharmacies throughout the country....

When a shoplifter stoops to stealing clothes, you gotta feel a little sorry for him or her. And when he falls to the ground convulsing, it’s almost a tragedy. But when it turns out he used a special bag to get the merchandise through electronic sensors, that’s a different story. And so a jury convicted the California man of burglary, grand theft, and possessing burglary tools. The Second District Court of Appeal reversed the “tools” conviction, but compassion had nothing to do with it....

“[P]rovocation is not evaluated by whether the average person would act in a certain way: to kill. Instead, the question is whether the average person would react in a certain way: with his reason and judgment obscured.” Immediately after the murder, Beltran fled to Mexico. He was apprehended six years later. The victim’s son testified to the sequence of events, from heated phone calls to Beltran’s inquiries as to whom the victim had been spending time with....