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There is weird, there is gross, and there is strange. A case in Idaho Falls involving a stalker is all three together, mixed with a pinch of “The Godfather.” A family of seven lives there, with five children. It is unknown what motive the person leaving the animal corpses might have. The Idaho Falls police do not have a suspect, but they do have one person of interest that the family suggested they speak with, the Post Register reports....

The tragic death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin has prompted a national dialogue about “stand your ground” laws and the Castle Doctrine. Many question whether George Zimmerman, a Sanford, Fla. neighborhood watch leader, should evade prosecution under Florida’s stand your ground law, which allows the use of force if a person “reasonably believes” it is necessary to protect the person’s own life, the life of another, or to prevent a forcible felony, reports USA Today....

An Alabama man accused of robbing four Subway sandwich shops with a gun told police he was angry because the chain’s “Jared Diet” hadn’t worked for him. Jared Fogle is a spokesperson for Subway who claims that the restaurants sandwiches helped him accomplish a dramatic weight loss. 18-year-old Zachary Torrance apparently failed to see similar results. “He stated in the course of his interview he had tried the ‘Jared Diet’ and it hadn’t worked for him like he thought it should have,” Hueytown Police Chief Chuck Hagler told WJBF-TV....

We’re almost starting to feel bad for Theranos. Once a Silicon Valley wunderkind, Theranos rose to fame on the back of its founder Elizabeth Holmes’ Steve Jobs-turtle necks and claims that the company could reshape the blood testing industry. Theranos rode that hype to a $9 billion valuation, only to be brought down by skepticism from the medical community, federal investigations, and an eventual ban on Holmes operating a medical laboratory....

Have any overdue library books lying around? Better get them back pronto, especially if you live in Littleton, Colorado. A Littleton teen, 19 year-old Aaron Henson, was driving home a few weeks ago when he was pulled over by a state trooper and arrested. Not for DUI, or even speeding, but for the overdue DVD of House of the Flying Daggers he forgot to return to the Littleton Library. The moment when the situation really went downhill for Henson was his failure to show up for his court date, because according to him, he was never informed of it....

A video of a lawyer in a road rage fight is making the rounds online, reports KABC-TV. The video features two older, well-dressed men in suits having a full-on brawl next to a white BMW. We all know the traffic in L.A. is bad and the road rage is even worse, but California-licensed attorney Randalf Lee Kincaid really doesn’t like the 405 Freeway. The two men just got off the 405 Freeway at Burbank Boulevard when all of a sudden the Angry Esquire went rogue....

Former Texas Longhorns and Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young was arrested in Austin after he was seen driving erratically last Saturday night. According to the affidavit for his arrest, Young’s speech was slurred, his eyes were glassy, and he refused to provide a blood or breath sample. Young was charged with misdemeanor driving while intoxicated and released on $2,000 bail. Symptoms of Intoxication According to the arresting documents, an officer first spotted the truck Young was driving stopped at a traffic light....

In the annals of what state bars can do to a lawyer, being disbarred ranks number one on the list. Lawyer TV shows frequently trot out disbarment as a punishment for things like lying to the court or breaking client confidentiality, leading civilians to think that it happens a lot. Disbarment, though, is pretty rare, and reserved for only the most heinous offenses. Low-level offenders usually just get suspended, and if they did something particularly nasty, the state bar makes them re-take the bar exam....

When law schools crunch numbers, sometimes they don’t tell the whole story. That’s because the numbers might not look so good. For example, student debt has been going up while job numbers have been going down. Law schools don’t want to scare students before they take the plunge, but maybe it’s time for more financial disclosure. After all, numbers-crunching shouldn’t be used to crush students. More Data, Please In a report to the American Bar Association, a state bar association urges the ABA to make law schools disclose more data on student debt, tuition, scholarships and bar passage rates....

We’re quickly approaching that magical time of the year called Burning Man, when progressive artist-types leave town for a week. (Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, that means you can finally get a table for brunch in under an hour.) If you’re a lawyer headed out to the Nevada desert – or even if you’re staying put – you may have some burning questions about the legal environment at Burning Man....

A New York shoplifting suspect who was confronted and stripped on camera is now suing 7-Eleven for emotional distress. David Golson, 30, allegedly tried to swipe a Snickers bar from a 7-Eleven in Brooklyn in October 2012, prompting clerks to violently strip him down, Courthouse News Service reports. The incident was recorded on surveillance and cell-phone camera video, which went viral after being publicized in news reports. Does the stripped accused shoplifter have a case?...

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action claiming that defendant state medical board personnel wrongfully investigated plaintiff-physician’s recommendation of medical marijuana to a patient, dismissal of the action is affirmed where plaintiff’s claims were barred by qualified immunity because he alleged no facts that a reasonable public official would have believed that issuance of the administrative subpoena under the facts presented violated a clearly established statutory or constitutional right. Read Bearman v....

With accusations of police brutality leading to unrest from Ferguson to Baltimore, many have called for law enforcement to wear body cameras. The thought is that body cam recordings will provide greater accountability, particularly following incidents such as the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, under highly disputed circumstances. Who, though, will have access to that footage? A new bill being considered in California could prevent police officers from reviewing their own recordings when they have been accused of misconduct....

The organizers of Burning Man and the Nevada county where the festival is held have settled a lawsuit over regulating the annual event. The deal comes a year after Black Rock City LLC (“BRC”), the organization behind the self-expressive desert festival, sued Pershing County for proposing an “obscenity” ordinance to combat nudity at the festival. Oddly enough, the two parties are in agreement but the presiding judge is refusing to approve the settlement....

The D.C. Circuit recently decided that the Federal Reserve rule that limited the fees banks can charge merchants for debit card transactions is reasonable under the Dodd-Frank Act. In NACS v. The Federal Reserve, the circuit court reversed the lower court’s decision that found the Federal Reserve went outside its authority in setting a fee cap per transaction by misinterpreting the Dodd Act. The Dodd-Frank Act (a.k.a. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act) was passed in 2010 and made reforms to federal financial regulatory agencies....

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Good Neighbor” rule this week, reports the Los Angeles Times. The appellate court, in a 2-1 decision, concluded that the EPA had overstepped its authority by issuing federal pollution standards before states had a chance to develop their own and by calling for greater-than-necessary emissions reductions. In August 2011, the EPA promulgated the Good Neighbor rule, (officially, the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule)....

Davis v. Dep’t of Justice, No. 09-5189, concerned a FOIA action seeking access to tape recordings made during an FBI investigation of a New Orleans mob boss. The court of appeals affirmed the denial of plaintiff’s motion for attorney’s fees, holding that the OPEN Government Act of 2007 did not retroactively allow plaintiff to recover fees. District of Colum. v. Doe, No. 09-7026, involved an action claiming that a hearing officer exceeded his authority under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in modifying a disciplinary order imposed on defendant’s child....

In plaintiff’s pregnancy discrimination suit against a city, trial court’s judgment in favor of plaintiff is reversed and remanded where: 1) the court’s refusal to instruct the jury with the mixed-motive defense, BAJI No. 12.26, prejudiced the city; and 2) the trial court properly denied defendant’s JNOV. Read Harris v. City of Santa Monica, No. B199571 [PDF] Read Harris v. City of Santa Monica, No. B199571 [HTML] Filed October 29, 2009...

The term ’emotional intelligence’ refers to a person’s ability to show empathy and understanding. This is an area where lawyers often need improvement. The truth is, high-stress lawyers aren’t exactly prone to being empathetic. Fortunately, unlike IQ, which seems to be pretty much set, EQ is something that can be worked at around the edges. Here are a few suggestions for increasing your emotional intelligence, as proposed by Preston Ni at Psychology Today....

Once the federal ban on sports gambling was overturned earlier this year, states have been scrambling to update their betting laws. While not all states are adopting open sports betting, those that are must put regulations in place governing everything from betting locations and wager limits to, of course, how winners get paid. And if you’re used to the old, buy and ticket, wait for the result, turn the ticket in method used in Vegas sportsbooks, the laws may be a little different in your state....