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A U.S. bankruptcy court is apparently holding a variety of professional athletes’ equipment, mementos, and memorabilia hostage until the athletes pay up enough dough to establish their ownership over the goods, the Wall Street Journal reports. In an article yesterday, the WSJ explained that the situation involves items on loan to the “Sports Museum of America in New York, a for-profit organization that recently declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy after opening to great fanfare in May....

Lawyers have the bad rep for expensing ridiculous charges to their clients . However, a close look at some expense reports abuses by politicians and executives show that lawyers are not alone, reports Huffington Post. The takeaway with these individuals appears to be that when someone else is footing the bill, you should try to get away with as much as possible. Here are the top five most egregious expense report abuses from haircuts to strip clubs to outright fraud:...

A sports memorabilia retailer is suing Tiger Woods’ company, ETW Corp., for allegedly breaching a contract. Gotta Have It Golf alleges that ETW breached a licensing agreement by not providing a specified number of autographs and photographs of Woods, according to the Miami Herald. Woods himself received a subpoena to testify in the civil lawsuit. What will the memorabilia company’s lawyers have to prove in order to win? One big money-maker for professional athletes and celebrities is the ability to license their image or products for use by other companies....

Wait, you didn’t think this post was about something else did you? We’re talking business deals here, people. C’mon now focus. You’ve likely heard that the golf course is the best place to close a business deal. You take a prospective client or partner out to the course, play a round of golf and close the deal over drinks or lunch afterwards. But this can’t be the only place to close a deal, can it?...

Chicago lawyer Thomas Gooch, representing a car dealership in a small claims action, filed a motion against his opposing counsel Dmitry Feofanov. The motion was meant to exclude from the plaintiff’s table a “large-breasted woman” who is seated next to Feofanov. That’s right. Attorney Thomas Gooch - barred and licensed to practice law - wrote a motion discussing a “large breasted woman.” At least he went with a term that sounds a bit more formal instead of the vernacular “big boobs....

In December 2013, Isaiah Martinez – undoubtedly an Adorable Child (as evidenced by this photograph) – brought some candy canes with him to his public elementary school, to be given away to his classmates as Christmas gifts. But those mean old school officials wouldn’t let him. Another casualty in the War on Christmas! Well, not quite. Each candy cane had a little paper attached containing the “candy cane legend,” which described how the white part of the candy cane represents “the virgin Birth, the sinless nature of Jesus” and the red stripes represent “the blood shed by Jesus on the cross so that we could have the promise of eternal life, if only we put our faith and trust in Him....

In-house attorneys can often be asked to help out when corruption rears its ugly head. Generally, apart from just sheer greed, corruption in business results from individual employees, or high ranking managers or officers, facing pressures that cause them to cut corners, hide facts, or manipulate data, for their own benefit. In its worst form, employees embezzle, steal, and engage in corporate espionage. At best, if this stuff is happening, you’ll have a toxic culture....

Armchair experts come in every field: NFL Quarterbacks, NBA coaches, MLB umps, political pundits, and real estate agents. Just because you own a home, are addicted to DIY shows, or frequent open houses for style tips, doesn’t necessarily mean you are a real estate expert. Here are five common real estate myths, debunked. With so many houses listed online, many buyers find their dream home using their own internet searches. They may be tempted to not only find a home, but also buy a home, on their own without a real estate agent, in the hopes of saving money....

Among the many wrongs the large banks have inflicted on the American public in the last two years, please add to the list: financial crises and parrot-napping. That is not a typo, a Hampton, Pennsylvania woman has sued Bank of America for wrongfully foreclosing on her home, damaging the contents and holding her pet parrot captive. According to the Post-Gazette report, when Ms. Iannelli contacted B of A, she claims they denied knowledge of the “invasion” and of the whereabouts of Luke....

An Alabama man claims he woke up in a hospital to find that his penis had been amputated, but all he had wanted was a circumcision. Johnny Lee Banks Jr., 56, has filed a lawsuit alleging that Princeton Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham never told him why it was “necessary to remove his penis,” reports Reuters. A spokeswoman for the Center denied the merit of his claims, but by all accounts Banks is still missing his penis....

In a classic “Doh!” moment, an alleged jewelry burglar in Colorado dumped his pants and cell phone at a 7-Eleven – a decision that led to arrest, sans pants and loot. The Bumbling Burglar was charged with four felonies and a misdemeanor, including second-degree burglary and theft. A burglary occurs when a suspect breaks and enters a building with the intent to commit a felony or larceny inside. Most states have axed the actual “breaking” element of burglary, but the suspect and his accomplice kept it traditional by using tools to break through a wall to commit the heist....

Oral arguments for California’s statewide redistricting case, Vandermost v. Bowen, will be broadcast live on Tuesday, January 10, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. PST. Arguments will be broadcast and webcast live on California Channel, a public affairs network. An archived audiocast will be available on California Channel on Wednesday, January 11. On December 9, 2011, the Supreme Court issued an order to show cause in response to a petition seeking relief under the California Constitution, on the grounds that a referendum measure challenging the Citizens Redistricting Commission’s certified state Senate district map is likely to qualify for the November 2012 ballot....

Peter Beshar, general counsel at Marsh & McLennan Companies, won’t shake hands with just any lawyer. When it comes to email with outside counsel, he requires an “electronic handshake.” It’s a form of email encryption, which verifies the domains of two companies communicating with each other. In a cyber-sensitive world, it’s an idea that is catching on at many law firms that want to ensure client information is secure. Transport Layer Security TLS is an encryption technology that enables secure email exchanges between senders and receivers....

In an action seeking a preliminary injunction to prohibit the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation from implementing its benefit determinations regarding certain airline pilots while a separate action was pending, the denial of the injunction is affirmed, where the pilots showed neither a substantial likelihood of success on the merits nor irreparable harm. Read Davis v. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., No. 08-5524 Appellate Information Argued May 5, 2009 Decided July 10, 2009...

Last month, former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields alleged (and security video confirmed) that Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, roughly grabbed her arm at a campaign press conference, leaving bruises. Trump and his campaign denied the allegations and the matter caused a mini-implosion at Breitbart, with both Fields and Ben Shapiro leaving the company, citing a lack of support. Today, the Jupiter (Florida) Police Department charged Lewandowski with battery and he turned himself in to police....

One would have expected the sexual revolution and women’s liberation movement to have stripped legislative codes of sexist laws and sex laws. Not so. Clinging onto days past (though some would say days present), some states have continued to enshrine ridiculously dumb laws that restrict sexual activities and punish men for a woman’s choice. Or stupidity. Whichever. Here are some of the best dumb laws around. And yes, it’s appropriate for work....

iPhone thieves better watch out. iGotYa app is on the market, and it’s helping theft victims catch those who dare to leave their hands empty. A 31-year-old Queens woman is the latest to benefit from iGotYa technology. After a man swiped her iPhone Monday evening, she received an email from the app’s servers. It contained a photo of the suspect and his exact coordinates. His face is now plastered all over the Internet....

With ethics issues swirling around the White House, President Trump appointed an internal adviser and his company named an outside counselor to deal with ethics concerns of the businessman-turned-president. According to reports, President Trump’s outside counsel is preparing documents for his divestiture plan that suggest a new internal ethics and compliance function. The ethics adviser would be responsible for ensuring that The Trump Organization is “not taking any actions that actually exploit, or even could be perceived as exploiting, the office of the presidency....

Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not help President Trump’s case against sanctuary cities that is playing out in San Francisco. On Wednesday, Sessions gave a speech claiming sanctuary cities have more violent crime on average than those cities that cooperate with the president’s campaign against illegal immigrants. On Thursday, a federal judge refused to lift an injunction against the president’s order to withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities. “The fundamental problem I see is, as found in my initial order, Section 9 of the executive order is unconstitutional,” Judge William Orrick III said, notwithstanding Session’s latest memo on the order....

Bologna, the popular sandwhich meat, is taking on a whole new role these days after a 30 year-old Holyoke, Massacheutts man was the recepient of a cocaine-stuffed chunk of bologna. Juan G. Rodriguez was later arrested on cocaine trafficking charges, according to MSNBC. A bunch of bologna? Not this case, as Rodriguez will have to answer to more than just Oscar Mayer for his unconvential use of the deli meat. With a steet value of close to $100,000, police were originally tipped off to the “enhanced” meat by postal workers in Puerto Rico, who had been investigating similar shipments over the past month....