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The District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics is going to really regret quoting ’80s rocker Pat Benatar, and not for just the obvious reasons. Asking the public to hit the District’s brand new internet based voting system, “digital vote by mail,” with their best shot turned out to be a touch premature. The best shot was fired, and the system when up in flames. The system was opened up for a week-long testing period, according to The Washington Post....

In Wyeth Holdings Corp. v. Sebelius, No. 09-1368, the Federal Circuit faced a challenge to the district court’s rejection of petitioner’s challenge to the FDA’s determination of the date on which the approval phase of its phased regulatory review process begins for purposes of calculating patent term extensions, related to an animal drug for the treatment and control of parasites in beef and dairy cattle. First, the court rejected the petitioner’s argument that section 156(g) unambiguously indicates that an application is initially submitted when a sponsor submits its first technical section in concluding that the section 156(g) is ambiguous....

People v. Jones, D055087, concerned a challenge to a conviction of defendant for attempted voluntary manslaughter and for shooting at an occupied vehicle. In affirming the conviction, the court held that the trial court correctly instructed the jury that a person standing outside a vehicle who, while holding a gun reaches into the vehicle through an open window or door and fires the gun, may be convicted of shooting “at” an occupied vehicle....

Former NFL tight end Jerramy Stevens was arrested, then released without charges, after allegedly striking Team USA soccer goalie Hope Solo on the eve of their wedding. The two had been dating for only two months, and were set to wed Tuesday. But instead of a wedding, Solo had to appear in court as her groom-to-be faced domestic assault charges, reports USA Today. Stevens and Solo reportedly started to argue over where they wanted to live – Florida or Washington....

It’s not polite to talk about money, but we’ll do it anyway. You’re working at BigLaw, which means one thing: you’re making big bucks. As a first-year associate, this is probably the first time you’re making a salary in the six-figures. But as you’ve already noticed, a big chunk of that gets taken out of taxes. Big bucks equal a higher tax bracket. If this is your first time you are filing taxes as an associate at BigLaw (or MidLaw, or even a strong boutique firm – we’re equal opportunity here), here are some tips to get you through it....

Ever heard of a butt drag? How about “checking the oil?” After reading three different articles about a wrestling incident in Fresco, California, I finally learned what a butt drag is. It made me very glad that I never tried wrestling in high school. 17-year-old Preston Hill is accused of doing a butt drag to a 14 year old boy during wrestling practice. The police are calling the maneuver sexual battery and bullying....

Friending people on Facebook is a good way to stay in touch but it’s not always a good idea to friend everyone you know. Say you work as a jailer and you friend a cute female inmate; that will probably end with you fired. How do we know this? It happened to Dewayne Powers, a Georgia jail deputy. Powers wasn’t the only jailer who got in trouble for friending the 23-year-old inmate, reports NBC News....

Anna Nicole Smith died more than five years ago, but courts continue to hear cases related to both her life and death. There was the short-lived paternity battle over Smith’s daughter, Dannielynn, the Supreme Court battle over her claim to late husband J. Howard Marshall’s estate, and the criminal charges stemming from her death. In 2011, Judge Robert J. Perry dismissed two criminal charges against Anna Nicole Smith’s boyfriend/lawyer Howard K....

Does anybody really enjoy being a law clerk? Let’s face it. Only a small minority of law students decide to spend their 3L summer compiling clerkship applications because they truly want to clerk for a judge. The vast majority are doing it for prestige. Now our vast disinterest in the realm of clerking is showing. “Law clerk” ranks as #7 on CNBC’s “10 Most Hated Jobs in America” list. Why is clerking for a judge so disliked when it’s so popular during law school?...

In a difficult job market, a vast majority of prospective attorneys want states to adopt a uniform bar exam. According to a new Kaplan survey, ninety-one percent of law students favor a bar exam that is the same across the board. Virtually all of them say it’s because they want more options about where they can practice law. Half the states have adopted a national test. Four of the largest states – California, Florida, Illinois, and Texas – have not....

Good fences make good neighbors. Chicken manure, not so much. Gerald Zarella’s neighbor in Exeter, Rhode Island, dumped a large pile of chicken manure close to their shared property border, just feet away from where a wedding was scheduled to be held the next day. Zarella, owner of Gerald’s Farm, feels this was in retaliation for developing the land into a commercial destination site for rustic weddings. Neighbors have been unhappy with what they consider to be an intrusion into their bedroom community, and this one took matters into his own hands....

The D.C. Circuit struck down relevant portions of the FCC’s Open Internet rules resulting in a slightly more claustrophobic Internet. The D.C. Circuit eliminated the anti-blocking and anti-discrimination requirements in the FCC’s Open Internet Order. The ruling was based on the Verizon v. FCC case, where Verizon challenged the FCC’s authority to impose the rules on broadband networks. This case is a big win for ISPs and sets a strong precedent for future network neutrality cases....

Trial court order precluding defendant from enforcing an affordable housing ordinance against a mixed use project that is being developed by plaintiff is affirmed where the affordable housing ordinance in question conflicts with, and is preempted by, the vacancy decontrol provisions of the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. Read Palmer/Sixth Street Properties, L.P. v. City of LA, No. B206102 in PDF Read Palmer/Sixth Street Properties, L.P. v. City of LA, No. B206102 in HTML...

In the state’s appeal from the trial court’s order granting defendant’s motion to recuse the Alameda County District Attorney’s office pursuant to Cal. Penal Code section 1424, the order is reversed where the fact that an employee of the district attorney’s office might be a witness did not justify disqualifying the entire office. Read People v. Cannedy, No. A120293 Appellate Information Filed August 25, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Sepulveda...

Sleep driving is a scary phenomenon, and it’s becoming more common. More than 60 million Americans take prescription sleep aids, according to an ABC News report this year. Sleep driving, however, isn’t a defense to driving under the influence when a defendant voluntarily takes Ambien. Terry Mathson was arrested for felony driving under the influence in 2008. As Mathson was a repeat offender, he was also slapped with charges for being a habitual traffic offender, driving with a suspended or revoked license, and driving a vehicle that was not equipped with a functioning ignition interlock device while his driving privilege was restricted....

Sriracha hot sauce – the chosen condiment of hipsters and foodies across the nation – is landing in some legal hot water. A judge recently ruled a part of the Sriracha factory in Southern California must shut down because of the pungent spicy odor it produces in the neighborhood. The sauce was literally too hot to handle for neighbors. Sriracha’s possible new slogan: “so hot, it hurts to breathe.” Judge Robert H....

In plaintiff’s suit against a Taiwanese corporation and an Israeli corporation claiming that they misappropriated the design of a microchip used in manufacturing personal computers, trial court’s entry of default judgment against defendants is reversed where: 1) undisputed facts plainly establish defendants’ attorney’s fault necessary to trigger a right to mandatory relief; 2) plaintiff’s argument that relief was barred by Code of Civ. Proc. section 1008, which restricts motions for reconsideration and renewals of previously denied motions, is rejected; and 3) to the extent a literal application of section 1008 might conflict with the provisions of section 473(b), the latter must prevail....

In US v. Shabban, No. 07-3138, the court of appeals affirmed defendant’s international parental kidnaping conviction, holding that the evidence was sufficient to persuade a reasonable juror of defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. However, the court remanded for an evidentiary hearing on defendant’s ineffective assistance claim because the record was not conclusive on that issue. In US v. Moore, No. 06-3085, the court of appeals affirmed defendant’s conviction for making a materially false statement because he signed a false name on a Postal Service delivery form, on the ground that a statement is material if it has a natural tendency to influence, or is capable of influencing, either a discrete decision or any other function of the agency to which it was addressed....

Nobody knew the demons that followed Paul Michael Pozonsky to the bench. Outwardly, Pozonsky was an exceptional county judge. He served on the ethics committee; he founded the drug court for people with substance abuse issues. But the judge had his own drug problems, and they had started long ago. They finally came out when he was caught stealing cocaine from the evidence file in this courtroom. Stolen Evidence Pozonsky resigned from the bench in 2012, and he pleaded guilty to criminal charges in 2015....

Separated spouses are going to have to make a decision in the next five days: do you want to pay your future ex, or the government? Come January 1, 2019, for the first time in over 70 years, alimony will not be tax deductible. What does this mean? If you finalize your divorce after the strike of midnight on December 31, 2018, you will be paying the government AND your future ex big money for many years to come....