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Virginia prisons may never escape the disgrace of “the tampon ban.” Prison officials have suspended the controversial ban, but the controversy is not going away. Somebody missed the memo that says you don’t take away a woman’s tampons and live to talk about it. A state representative said the ban would not have applied to female attorneys. But that statement was too little, too late. Female Attorneys The Department of Corrections said the policy was supposed to stop women visitors from smuggling contraband into prison....

“COPSLIE” is now an officially sanctioned license plate in New Hampshire, after the state Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday. David Montenegro, who applied for the “COPSLIE” license plate, faced opposition from state law which prohibited vanity plates that “a reasonable person would find offensive to good taste,” reports The Associated Press. But New Hampshire’s highest court determined that this law was unconstitutionally vague. Why did the court side with “COPSLIE”?...

Without fail, every year, sometimes a few times per year, surveys get done, and schools will be ranked on various characteristics to help prospective students make a decision on where to apply and what schools to attend. But this year the rankings might be a bit more difficult to decipher. Recently, The Princeton Review released their 2018 law school rankings, which go beyond just what law school is the best. Law schools were ranked on many factors, including best career prospect, best classroom experience, and more....

The Alabama fan who simulated a sex act on a passed-out LSU fan in a viral video could spend the next two years in prison, the Associated Press reports. Brian H. Downing, 33, of Smiths Station, Ala., exposed his genitals and pretended to sodomize an unconscious man in a Louisiana State University jersey at a Bourbon Street restaurant in January. The incident took place after Alabama beat LSU in the BCS national title game....

Seriously, this is becoming a new hobby: find and criticize proposals to “fix” law schools. (Don’t ask about my ideas. With apologies to the South, it would somewhat resemble Sherman’s March to the Sea, razing diploma mill schools, cutting seats everywhere else, and eliminating any ABA-sponsored tenure requirements to cut costs and tuition.) Today’s proposal? Lets make third-year useful again by incorporating bar exam prep classes into the curriculum. It’s not a bad idea – it’s just mostly pointless....

Naked. Bike. Rides. Three mostly harmless words that you rarely see all in one place. But apparently they’ve come together in a big way for coordinated events around the globe which revel in the act of riding a bike naked in public. But are these scantily clad cycling events legal? Freewheelin’ and Freeballin' In most states around the country, there are indecent exposure laws which may prevent men and women from legally exposing their genitals in public....

An intact bandage? In a pizza? Wouldn’t it melt? Putting aside the heat-withstanding qualities of nylon bandages and cotton, Ken Wieczerza of Ballston Lake, New York claims that, on June 9, he bit into a leftover slice of Pizza Hut pizza only to find that a blue bandage had been baked into the bottom crust. Removing it from his mouth, he realized that the bandage also appeared to be spotted with blood....

Of all the illegal things being bought and sold on Facebook, the last thing that we thought would get you in trouble is ceviche. Leaving aside whether or not purchasing raw fish cured in citrus juices over the internet is a wise decision, surely a single mother of six can offer up a delicious homemade dish on a local Facebook forum, no? No. Not according to San Joaquin County authorities, who completed a year-long undercover sting operation on illicit Facebook food sales by hauling Mariza Ruelas into court to face misdemeanor charges that could wind up in jail time if Ruelas is convicted....

It’s time for the third edition of the FindLaw Court Website March Madness Tournament, where we pit state and federal court websites against each other to see who will be the victor. Last week, the Federal Circuit barely beat out the Fourth to claim the title of best court website in the South. Today, we go home, home on the range, to see which of the Great Plains courts have the most aesthetically pleasing, usable, and timely websites....

One-track mind. One-trick pony. One-and-done. Call it what you want, it’s usually not a good thing to be all about one thing. That’s true in applying to law school, too. Think of your law school application like a financial portfolio. It’s a good idea to diversify. Diverse Backgrounds Daniel Waldman, a Harvard law grad, counsels law students about applying to law school. According to U.S. News & World Report, many of his students get admitted to the top law schools....

We’ve all heard that one joke about the lawyer who dies young, goes to heaven, and is told by Saint Peter at the pearly gates of heaven that there must be some mix up as according to the lawyer’s billing records, he’s 200 years old. But, with any luck, recent news about one bill-padding BigLaw lawyer might give other bill-padding lawyers pause. Apparently, after one partner was discovered adding in extra time by his firm (and not Saint Peter at the pearly gates), not only was he fired, but he has been outed publicly, has a pending ethics complaints, and is likely to end up having to pay back the firms that are paying back the clients that he overbilled....

While sports teams, leagues, conferences, colleges, and even coaches and other staff have been put in the hot seat over concussion-gate, the well known helmet maker Riddell is being brought into the fray by college and high school football players. While the NFL players’ lawsuit against the helmet maker started in the middle of last year and has gone nowhere yet, a class-action was filed last month against the same helmet maker on behalf of former high school and college players....

If you’re a fresh graduate and you’ve managed to snag a place at a fancy firm, congratulations. If you’ve also managed to convince them to help pay off a portion of your debt, then you really are living the dream – at least for now. There’s a new trend these days that’s gained steam and is being met with obvious approval from law school grads: law firm assisted student debt repayment....

In a paper published in The University of Chicago Law School’s Journal of Legal Studies, Michael Simkovic, a professor at Seton Hall University School of Law, and Frank McIntyre, a professor of finance and economics at Rutgers Business School, wanted to know whether it’s worth it to go to law school. Their conclusion: A law degree adds about $1 million on average to a person’s lifetime earnings. We’ve heard about the dearth of law practice jobs and the lousy doc-review-on-contract ones that are available....

Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims judgment is affirmed where the court properly held that plaintiff’s finality claim was an impermissible freestanding challenge to the finality of a prior regional office decision, as the law does not recognize a freestanding finality claim filed after the period for direct appeal has expired. Read Knowles v. Shinseki, No. 08-7119 Appellate InformationAppeal from the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans ClaimsDecided June 26, 2009...

How Much for Macaulay Culkin? It’s the end of an eccentric and vaguely creepy era: Michael Jackson is selling thousands of items from his Neverland Ranch at a Beverly Hills auction set to kick off next week. Items that can be yours for the right price include a life-size Lego model of Darth Vader, an ice cream cart, and a painting of Jackson as an Elizabethan nobleman, according to the New York Times, which reports that the auction is being held in a former department store due to the size of the collection....

A car crash on a hot day in Texas led to a hot-headed woman’s arrest. But not before she allegedly ditched her kids at the crash scene … to eat some ice cream and strip naked. Police arrested Stephanie Dillard, 34, on suspicion of child endangerment after she allegedly crashed her car into a city bus, Houston’s KPRC-TV reports. Dillard’s 5-, 12-, and 16-year-old children were along for the ride when the crash happened....

Baseball Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan is known for his record 5,714 strikeouts, but it looks like he hit a homerun this time. Ryan, and an investment group he leads won an auction for the Texas Rangers Thursday with a $608 million bid. “It was an emotional roller coaster,” a smiling Ryan said between hugs with colleagues and well-wishers in the courthouse, ESPN reports. “You go to court one day and it didn’t go your way, but you go back another day and it would....

NFL star Aaron Hernandez is not only a potential player in a homicide investigation, but he’s also being sued in civil court in an unrelated matter. A lawsuit accuses the New England Patriots tight end of shooting a man in February, ESPN reports. Alexander Bradley claims that after he argued with Hernandez at a Miami strip club, Hernandez shot him in a car. The bullet traveled from Bradley’s arm to his face, the lawsuit asserts....

Defendant’s conviction for first degree murder is affirmed for the most part where: 1) questioning defendant’s girlfriend in the presence of the jury did not violate defendant’s right of confrontation; 2) permitting the prosecutor to argue in its closing argument regarding defendant’s girlfriend’s refusal to testify did not violate defendant’s constitutional rights; and 3) even if the court erred by permitting the adverse comment striking all of defendant’s girlfriend’s testimony the error was harmless....