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Dude, where’s my defendant? A Rastafarian pot enthusiast has pulled the “religion” card in his defense. But when his case came up in court this week, he was nowhere to be found. Robert Joseph Simmons, 33, believes he doesn’t need to worry about a thing – not because every little thing is gonna be alright, but because he claims marijuana is a “core tenet” of his religion. Simmons appears to take his religious practice very seriously, because he was busted with more than two and half pounds of pot and 13 pills of hydromorphine, The San Francisco Examiner reports....

A serial bride got cold feet at her court hearing and now has two rings around her wrists instead of one on her finger. New Yorker Liana Barrientos has been accused of marrying 10 men in 11 years. When authorities caught on to her 10th marriage, Barrientos was charged with felony filing a fraudulent marriage license application. Having pled not guilty, Barrientos was required to show up to court earlier this week for a hearing....

Are you ready for your close up? If the idea of working in Hollywood is appealing, now could be the time for your breakout debut. Several major media and entertainment companies are looking for skilled attorneys to join their in-house teams. That could be you. So dust off your resume and practice your best Marlon Brando stare. As part of our affiliate relationship with Indeed, we’re bringing you the three coolest legal jobs of the week, all in the entertainment industry, because there’s no business like litigating show business....

Every lawyer at some point or another is going to have a client that can’t pay. If it hasn’t happened to you yet, then consider yourself lucky. It may happen that they come to you and there is just no way they can afford a private attorney. Or, they may have engaged you, and then discovered that they can’t make the bill. Either way, we have resources you can turn to and a few ideas that might help....

Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador’s doping charges were upheld on Monday. He was stripped of his 2010 Tour de France title and banned from the sport for two years. The decision was handed down by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The three-man panel held that Contador was guilty of taking performance-enhancing drugs. Contador originally argued that the presence of clenbuterol in his system was not the result of illegal doping....

The man accused of masterminding the Ohio Amish beard-cutting attacks made a request last week. Samuel Mullet wanted to be out on bail. A judge declined to release Mullet on bond earlier in January. Electronic monitoring would be difficult because his Amish home had no electricity. But now it seems Mullet is willing to concede. He would allow the installation of electronics in his home. This means he could wear an electronic monitoring device....

Walmart prides itself on having everything a customer needs, and at a low price. That is why the company tag line is “Save money. Live Better. Walmart.” A man in West Valley City, Utah, recently took that line a bit too literally. On Friday March 5, he reportedly found everything he needed to live well at Walmart, including the tools necessary to rob the place. Loading his “finds” into an also readily available shopping cart, the thief headed toward the door....

Earlier this week, Willie Peacock offered great tips to our gentlemen readers about building a professional wardrobe on a budget. The ladies, however, were none-too-pleased that Monsieur Peacock had no advice for filling our female readers’ closets. To make it up to you, I’m going to start sharing my secrets on how, where, and when to snag the best deals. Since you’re reading this on the Internet, let’s start with tips about online shopping....

In the lexicon of leadership, there are some words you should not say. They suggest weakness or failure, a tentative approach when directness is required. Leaders should use assertive language that conveys “confidence and authority,” says one writer. It’s all good to delete some expressions for business purposes, but remember what George Carlin said about forbidden words: “You never know what’s going to be on the list because it’s always somebody else’s list....

A California man shot with a stun gun by a park ranger after being detained for having his dog off-leash has taken his lawsuit against the United States Government to trial. Gary Hesterberg brought suit against the government for battery and false imprisonment following a 2012 incident on a San Mateo County running trail managed by the National Park Service, reports Courthouse News Service. How did Hesterberg’s leash-law violation take such a “stunning” turn of events?...

You know what happens when a student rigs an election? Prison. A former Cal State San Marcos student who stole nearly 750 student passwords and used them to cast votes for himself and fraternity brothers was sentenced Monday in federal court to a year in prison. It would be especially sad if he still couldn’t manage to get enough votes to win. Despite the large-scale theft, it was Matthew Weaver’s dumb unwise attempt to cover up the largest student identity theft in the university’s 24-year history that really got the judge’s goat....

Here’s a friendly Thanksgiving reminder from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB): Disciplining an employee for being an outspoken union supporter is an unfair labor practice. Manor Care of Easton, Pennsylvania clearly does not want its employees to unionize; the nursing home disciplined one of its employees, “outspoken union supporter” Trisha Miechur, after she started promoting unionization at work. The NLRB asserted that Miechur’s supervisor, Debra Kushnerick, disciplined Miechur in violation of National Labor Relations Act....

One has to wonder whether Glenn McGogney of Harrisburg, Penn. actually ever read the state’s attorney ethics rules. The longtime attorney was disbarred late last month by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court after the justices learned of his less than savory behavior. Besides letting deadlines lapse, he convinced two clients to invest in his failing side business. He also conveniently forgot to tell them that the money was for a strip club....

Many individuals fight against stereotypes most of their lives. But Mark Thomas Wach isn’t like most people. He tried to use the stereotypical “redneck” attitude as a defense for his rather questionable behavior on November 20. The 43-year-old Florida man reportedly shot his lawn mower while drunk, fought with his 18-year-old son, and even drew a gun during the fight. He was arrested and charged with aggravated domestic assault with a firearm and domestic battery....

Duke Law School launches Masters in Law and Entrepreneurship. An LLM for the little business attorney in all of us. Widener Law School 1L is Mayor. A 1L who’s not looking for a summer position. Yale Law Professor Daniel Freed is Remembered. Reforming federal sentencing laws, co-founding a law review, serving at the U.S. Department of Justice, and teaching at Yale…all in a life’s work. UC Berkeley Law School Hides Professor Yoo’s Class....

Legal Current recounts a 60 Minutes piece in which parsing definitions from Black’s Law Dictionary figures prominently. 60 Minutes is now officially out of material. The New York Times invited a bunch of people to comment on the student debt issue. One more time for the record: we would be in favor of not having any. Justice Kennedy spoke to the graduating masses at Stanford about the importance of law and freedom....

The Masters golf tournament tees off today with much anticipation: Many are waiting to see if the Augusta National Golf Club will offer a green jacket – and membership – to a woman, for the first time ever. Augusta National opened as a men’s golf club in 1933. The club has never granted membership to a woman, though women are allowed to play on its golf course, CBS News reports....

Lyft and Sidecar can continue operating as legitimate businesses in California, but they’ll have to abide by the CPUC’s new regulations which were approved in a decision Thursday. Under the newly approved rules, “rideshare” apps which allow users to summon a participating driver to get them from point A to point B are now classified as Transportation Network Companies (TNCs), a newly created regulatory category that has a whole new set of rules....

A man with Tourette syndrome says he wasn’t allowed to board a flight at Reagan National Airport because he blurted out the word “bomb” nearly 100 times. Since the flight left without him, 19-year-old Michael Doyle – and his incredibly supportive friend who stayed behind with him – missed taking part in an 18th-century battle re-enactment in Puerto Rico, which the two of them had been planning to attend for the last two years, reports ABC News....

A June decision by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is making waves now, after the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) decided to stay the issuance of at least nineteen final reactor licenses. The D.C. Circuit decision, which came down on June 8, rejected the NRC rule that allowed licensing and re-licensing of nuclear reactors. The NRC’s licensing rule was based largely on the NRC’s prospects of temporary storage and permanent disposal of nuclear waste....