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How many flags could woodchucks chuck, if woodchucks could chuck flags? The answer: about 75. The two-year Mystery of the Missing Flags at a veterans cemetery in Hudson, N.Y., is finally solved, and all signs point to an inside (or rather, underground) job: The cemetery’s own flag-stealing groundhogs were the culprits, and their unpatriotic crimes were caught on camera, the local Register Star reports. Video proof of the critters’ capers comes as a relief to some locals who’d suspected possibly racist motives behind the flag-stealing incidents....

The hacker known as “weev,” whose conviction was recently overturned, has sent a message to the government: “PAY ME MY MONEY, YOU LYING SUBHUMAN GARBAGE.” Andrew “weev” Auernheimer was released from federal prison a month ago, and now he wants payment for the time he spent in custody. TechCrunch reports that “weev” tweeted out his “invoice” to the federal government for 28,296 Bitcoins, and announced that he would be “filing liens upon their properties....

Reversal of arbitrator’s award in favor of plaintiff in breach of contract dispute Hoso Foods, Inc. v. Columbus Club, Inc., B219940, concerned a challenge to the trial court’s confirmation of an arbitrator’s award of over $1.2 million in favor of plaintiff, in proceedings arising from a breach of contract suit involving an agreement to lease an assembly hall for a catering event and plaintiff’s claim that defendant knew about the city’s restrictive ordinances precluding the use of the hall for catered events....

In re N.V., D057087, concerned a challenge to the juvenile court’s order placing petitioner’s children in foster care, in dependency proceedings involving petitioner’s two minor children. In affirming the juvenile court’s order placing petitioner’s children in foster care, the court held that, although the court abused its discretion by excluding evidence concerning the agency’s reasons for refusing to approve the grandmother’s home, there was no miscarriage of justice as the grandmother was living in a new home that had not been physically inspected, and as such, the children could not have been placed with her regardless of her child abuse history....

An NHL official who was working as a lineman during a regular season game between the Calgary Flames and the Nashville Predators is suing a player after sustaining severe on-ice injuries during the game. The ref is seeking $250,000 in damages related to his injuries, plus another $10 million for loss of current and future income. The incident occurred over a year ago now, and was captured on camera. The video does not paint a sympathetic picture for the player being sued....

Sentence for felony child neglect and inflicting great bodily injury on a child under the age of five years in the commission of a felony or attempted felony is affirmed where the trial court was correct that it could not impose a sentence other than the stipulated term agreed to by the parties, as its discretion to impose a sentence both at the initial sentencing hearing and upon a recall of the sentence under Penal Code sec....

First, it was a desk job for off duty police officer Michael Baylor who pulled his weapon during a snowball fight game. He was assigned to desk duty until the investigation was complete. Now, the D.C. police officer will serve a 10-day suspension for violating the department’s policy but will remain on the force, the Washington Examiner reports. As previously discussed, videos were widely circulated on the Internet of the off-duty plainclothes police officer pull his gun after snowballs hit his private car....

A standup comedian, Sunda Croonquist, can continue telling jokes about her mother-in-law as they are protected speech. Now, she gets the last laugh. A judge sided with the comic who is half-black, half-Swedish and threw out the case brought against her for making her Jewish mother-in-law the butt of her jokes in her stand-up routine, the Associated Press reports. For background on the lawsuit and to see the original complaint, see FindLaw’s Courtside....

Sometimes, a judge has to speak his or her mind. And when a judge steps down from the bench, walks down to the well and addresses the courtroom audience, it’s really time to listen. It’s not about the record; it’s about the lesson. That’s the law between the lines. Here’s what to do when judges make speeches in the courtroom. On the Record Whether the judge speaks on or off the record, take notes....

The holidays are coming up. (And so is flu season.) You might have some unused vacation days that will expire. You may have a new family member on the way, or you might just have a case of the Mondays. There are quite a few reasons you might need some time away from work, so when is it too late to ask your boss for that time off? Most employers are free to set their own policies when it comes to time off requests, but here are some general rules, depending on the type of time off you’re requesting....

Call it vestiges of New England Puritanism. Last week, a small town in Massachusetts made news with a ban on swearing. This week, Rhode Island is in the news for rescinding a law that made it illegal to lie over the Internet. Passed in the nascent days of the Internet, when there was still fear of the unknown world wide web, the Rhode Island legislature passed an Internet law that made it a crime to tell a fib over the Internet, reports the Los Angeles Times....

Fiat Chrysler is the smallest of Detroit’s ‘Big Three’ automakers. But it could become a lot bigger if it merged with General Motors. If such a merger happened, it would likely have the blessing of President-elect Donald Trump – and presumably the regulators working for his administration. At least, that’s what Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne speculated this week. Marchionne made the comments, in Italiano, during the Detroit Auto Show on Monday....

If you’re one of the lucky few law school graduates from the class of 2012 to have a job with a firm, congratulations! You’ve earned it. As a new associate, you’ll be busy trying to remember names, figure out how to work the coffee machine, and oh yeah, learn how to practice law. To say it’s overwhelming is a slight understatement. While you try to juggle all of your new tasks, here are a few tips to help you survive your first year as a new associate....

He came to fame when he negotiated the contract for Rene Arocha, the first Cuban ball player to defect to the U.S. But years later, agent Gustavo “Gus” Dominguez would instead become known for smuggling Cuban baseball players into the country. And that fact did not change this week, even though the 11th Circuit partially reversed his 2007 conviction. Dominguez may not have illegally transported and harbored aliens, but he did conspire and attempt to smuggle them into the country....

Wyers v. Master Lock Co., 09-1412, concerned a challenge to a jury finding that defendant failed to show by clear and convincing evidence that the certain claim of the patents at issue would have been obvious, and district court’s denial of defendant’s renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law, in an action for infringement of patents related to hitch pin locks that secure trailers to cars and sport utility vehicles....

You find sunken treasure, literally piles and piles of gold (and a fair amount of human bones) at the bottom of the ocean. You’re set for life, right? Not quite. As any fan of “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” can tell you, finding gold is just the start of your troubles. And so it goes with the S.S. Central America, a Gold Rush era steamship that deposited over 30,000 pounds of gold (worth about $50 million today) in Davey Jones’ locker, just off the coast of South Carolina, more than 150 years ago....

Decision of the Court of Federal Claims awarding plaintiff $10,732 in attorney’s fees under the Internal Revenue Code, arising from the imposition of a transfer tax on machine guns manufactured by plaintiff, is reversed as neither the ATF’s action in denying the refund on the basis that the firearm had not been misclassified, nor the government’s action in defending the denial of the refund on the same ground, was without substantial justification....

In a simmering battle in a Baltimore suburb, we may find out just how gay a yard can be. Julie Baker received an anonymous letter warning that her yard was “becoming Relentlessly Gay.” So she did what any normal American in 2015 would do: she started an online fundraising campaign and raised $26,000 to make her yard even more gay and more relentless. Just How Gay? You can see the full context and gayness of Baker’s yard in the local news report:...

It’s a tough time for high fructose corn syrup. Once found in pretty much everything sweet, King Corn has fallen from his pedestal a bit since corn syrup was connected to everything from obesity to heart disease to honeybee die offs. It’s gotten so bad that HFCS now wants to be known as “corn sugar.” After all, sugar is sugar right? Not according to the actual sugar industry. They’ve taken “Big Corn” to court, suing corn syrup giants for $2 billion in false advertising based on their claims that corn syrup was just as good as cane sugar....

Some attorneys love to see their mugs on TV. They buy huge amounts of TV ad time during the day or late at night, usually making bold claims about their legal skills. That’s exactly what attorney Roni Deutch, a daytime TV mainstay known as the “Tax Lady,” has been doing for years. She runs incessant ads extolling her ability to get anyone out of a jam with the IRS. Well, it looks like the “Tax Lady” may well be headed to jail....