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The United States government has potentially blessed over 8,000 underage sex trafficking cases in the past 10 years through its immigration portal, according to a recent report by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. INA Doesn’t Bar This Form of Sex Trafficking The Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA) does not set an age limit for immigration requests for spouses or fiancées. For example, this means that a 15-year-old female U....

David Lash thinks that lawyer jokes are over. “For the past two weeks, across the country, lawyer jokes have fallen silent,” Lash, the managing counsel for pro bono and public interest services at O’Melveny & Myers, writes in Above the Law. Faced with attorneys’ quick response to the president’s travel ban, during which lawyers flocked to airports to offer legal services to detainees, the public’s appreciation has overwhelmed its previous derision of the profession....

Charles Manson, who was responsible for organizing a mass murder in the late 1960s, is getting legally married behind bars. The now 80-year-old killer obtained a marriage license on November 7 to marry his 26-year-old girlfriend Afton Elaine Burton. The bride-to-be told The Associated Press that they would “be married next month,” although the license technically allows them to get married anytime within 90 days after its issue. So Charlie Manson’s getting married, while still in prison, after being responsible for several murders....

This week, a ‘Price is Right’ model’s $7.7 million discrimination judgment slipped from her grasp like the elusive $1.00 mark on the show’s famous Big Wheel. But just like the contestant vying for a spot in the Showcase Showdown, Brandi Cochran will get a second spin in court, The Hollywood Reporter reports. If you’ve never seen the ‘Price is Right,’ then clearly you have never stayed home from school or work for a sick day....

During his days as a player, Washington Nationals manager Matt Williams was known as “The Big Marine” for his unflappable demeanor. That reputation was put to the test last week when Williams was rear-ended by a hit-and-run driver while being interviewed live on a local sports radio station. Keep Calm, but Don’t Carry On The most important thing to remember if you’re involved in a car accident is to remain calm....

Going to court in New York City probably isn’t your idea of a good time, and yet the city’s night court has become a tourist attraction in its own right. Tourists from around the world – some armed with travel books that list NYC’s night court as a unique destination – are transfixed as they witness the American justice system in action, The Associated Press reports. Perhaps visitors are hoping for a “Law and Order”-type experience, but alas the Manhattan Criminal Court’s nighttime docket isn’t meant to be entertaining....

At one BigLaw firm, there was good year-end news and bad new-year news. It’s the same old, same old in business – especially in the up-and-down law business. But in this case, the senior associates are feeling it more than others. Not “Partner” Material According to reports, Cahill Gordon is telling 85 percent of a class of senior associates that it’s time to go. The firm is not calling it layoffs for now, just a six-month opportunity to find new jobs....

What do you do when the police arrest you? Get your mom to sue! Actress Winnifred Bonjean-Alpart, a rising star in feminist theater and star of Slut: The Play, was 17-years-old when she was arrested last August for disorderly conduct and possession of alcohol by a minor and a forged instrument (identification). Now, she’s claiming that police violated her constitutional rights, planted false evidence in her purse, and wrongfully arrested her....

Crime does not pay, especially when you steal a taco truck and hit a school bus during your getaway. Then you just end up in a shooting. Specifically, you end up shot at by police and the saga ends with you in the hospital. This is the true story of Sean Fowler, 20, and Daiquon Horne, 22, who stole a taco truck in San Bernardino on Monday morning, according to the city’s local paper, The Sun....

Monkeys throw poop, and who doesn’t love that? But there might be some legal consequences when you, a human, start flinging doodoo into someone’s yard. Take San Marino, California, Mayor Dennis Kneier’s ordeal as a cautionary tale. Kneier was caught on surveillance video allegedly tossing dog poop onto a neighbor’s walkway, reports Los Angeles’ KNBC-TV. To be fair to Kneier, the doggie doodie was in a closed dog-poo bag, but the victim was still steamed over the steamer left on his property....

U.S. Steel Corp. v. U.S., 09-1572, concerned a challenge to a decision of the United States Court of International Trade upholding the Department of Commerce’s determination of antidumping duties against an importer of hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from the Netherlands. In affirming, the court held that the Court of International Trade properly exercised its jurisdiction over the Section 129 claim. The court also held that the Court of International Trade properly found that Commerce’s interpretation of its governing statute is in accordance with law as section 1677f-1(d) does not manifest a clear Congressional intent that zeroing methodology be used....

“Vape” has been named the Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2014. Following in the hallowed footsteps of last year’s winner, “selfie,” “vape” beat out some fierce competition from other up-and-coming slang terms such as “normcore,” “slacktivism,” and “budtender” to take this year’s title reports CNET. “Vape” acts as both a verb and a noun, describing the act of inhaling and exhaling the vapor produced by an electronic cigarette or vaporizer as well as the vaporizing device itself....

Venture capitalists – predominantly men – have been like the gorillas in the boardroom; they sit wherever they want. Women, on the other hand, have barely had a seat at the table. They’ve long suffered silently from sex discrimination and harassment in the tech industry, where startups often survive only as long as they get funding. That culture started to change several years ago after a tell-all lawsuit scorched the Silicon Valley....

Law school gunners, start your engines. And, your iPhone or iPad. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has launched its very own BigLaw app. Called “Skadden Start Here,” the free mobile application comes loaded with goodies for any aspiring BigLaw interviewee. It features tidbits of information about the firm policies and their view on firm life. It will let users keep up-to-date with Skadden’s global recruiting efforts. Included in the application is a feature that allows users to scan in Skadden business cards and add them to their contact list, according to The New York Times....

In a decision that could undermine California’s ability to respond to increasingly dire drought conditions, a state appellate court has ruled that San Juan Capistrano cannot implement tiered water rates that are not based on the cost of service provision. Under the city’s plan, the rate charged for water usage increased depending on the overall amount of water used. Users in the lowest tier paid about $2.50 per unit – the most profligate water users paid over three times that rate....

With the legalization of recreational marijuana use in Colorado and Washington, entrepreneurs are now testing the limits of these laws by opening up “pot bars” and private clubs. Last fall, voters in the two states legalized marijuana use for adults over the age of 21. However, the use of pot must be in private. You can’t just walk around a public park or other public area smoking a joint. To provide a place for pot smokers to hang out, a variety of businesses have cropped up in these two states, including pot bars, cafes, and clubs, reports The Associated Press....

Our congratulations go out to the 1L’s of the world! You’ve made it through your first semester of law school and the misery that is law school exams. And now it’s time for winter break. Finally, you get a brief respite from law school, a short return to normal life. Here’s how to make the most of it. We’re not joking. For some students – the kind who could barely bring themselves to study for finals, who were kept up all night by stress and regret, who would rather gnaw off their own foot than sit through another Civ Pro lecture – winter break is a good time to drop out....

We are in the midst of the award show season, and the Fashion Police are out in full effect. If you watched the Grammy Awards last Sunday, then you probably couldn’t help but notice tastemaker and renaissance man, Pharrell Williams’ choice of headwear. If you didn’t, then you missed the fashion statement of the year. Yes we are still talking about this, but stick around, you might learn something. Pharrell Williams’ hat took on a life of its own, and within hours of the show, the hat had its own Twitter account, and the likes of Arby’s and Quaker Oats were tweeting about it....

Wisconsin man Michael F. West claims that a ghost beat his wife. Unfortunately for West, “a ghost did it” just isn’t credible. It has the same amount of believability as “the dog ate my homework.” In reality, West is the one who allegedly strangled his wife twice. He also reportedly punched her several times in the face when she tried to get to the phone. The altercation started after an argument....

There’s a fine line between art and graffiti. But for now, at least, the painted gnomes that have popped up around town in Oakland, California, have squeaked by on the “art” side of the line. Unfortunately, no one asked local utility company about putting the artwork on the poles. The company was planning to remove them until the community spoke up. The artwork is by definition graffiti, which is any inscription or defacement on property that is not your own....