News: General Practice

Police Departments around the country are joyously welcoming additional revenue from the Obama administration’s stimulus package.

Following a fatal fire, which tore through a co-op complex in New York, several counties are considering changes to the necessary regulations on fire hydrants.

On Thursday, a new law will go into effect in Washington state.

In Connecticut on Monday, a woman was savagely attacked by her friend’s “pet” chimpanzee. When she entered her friend’s house, the chimp immediately threw himself at her and began to use his teeth to tear into her face and hands. She has been left with disfiguring injuries that she will live with for the rest of her life.

Many prominent scientific groups have announced that they will boycott the state of Louisiana for a recently passed law. The scientists have agreed to not hold any conferences in the state, thereby cutting them off from any potential revenue from the scientific community.

The American Bar Association recently reported that the number of lawyers who do work for free, or pro bono, has risen from 66 percent in 2005 to 73 percent, this year.

Over two years ago, a young Texas girl was charged with attacking police when they came after her for suspected prostitution charges. They had received reports that there were some white prostitutes in the area, but the young girl was black.

Dramatic overcrowding in California’s state prisons has made it necessary for lawmakers to release 40,000 to 60,000 inmates. The poor living conditions, which include a lack of mental and physical health care, have led to several deaths-

Recent reports have shown that runaway children are being put in jail for periods of time- an action that is illegal in all states. One young girl was put into a county jail for

In Washington, D.C. it has now become a legal offense to not clear all of the snow off of your car. For an emergency period of 255 days, law enforcement officials have the right to pull motorists over and warn that they must clear excess snow and ice from the entire vehicle, and not just the windows.

Last year, when a series of hurricanes slammed into the United States, many people panicked as gas prices rose to over $5/gallon. Many consumers complained to their statesmen and accused the gasoline companies of price-gouging. Because of this event, and many others, lawmakers have begun to crack down on potential gougers.

For years, lawyers relied on the system of billing their clients by the hour for their services.

For his first bit of legislation since he entered the presidency last week, President Obama will sign a law that will contradict decisions made by the Supreme Court, making it more difficult for women and minorities to sue for pay discrimination. The high court had said that an employee only had six months after the first unfair paycheck to protest and bring his or her case to court.

The new Obama administration has said that it will do things much differently than the previous administration. The most recent change that his political team has proposed is a new shield law to protect journalists and they will make it much easier to gain access to government documents.

A law created a few years ago in California was supposed to bar convicted sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools, parks and other areas where children might be playing. The idea was to remove the temptation for convicted felons. However, the plan has backfired, and now convicted sex offenders are having difficulty trying to find places to live. Many can only afford to live in the areas where they are not allowed to purchase or rent a home.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that failure to report to prison can no longer be considered a violent crime. This is because a report that examined failures to come to prison did not find any correlation to violent crimes and did not support claims that those convicts who avoided prison were any more likely to resist arrest or injure police officers.

President Barack Obama has vowed to eliminate some of the pollution that has been called the cause of the international global warming concern. In his own home state, legislation is underway that might make old coal-burning facilities a thing of the past. New research has been done to show that coal can be burned in a way that is cleaner and better for the environment. According to a new law, the state of Illinois will give $18 million for studies that will lead to the creation of a new plant in Springfield.

The Supreme Court justices are currently in talks about abolishing several rules pertaining to special protections for minorities in the workplace and in the voting booth. In the past, courts have ruled that employers must avoid tests and standards that would put minorities at a disadvantage. However, the Supreme Court will hear a case about a fire department that threw out civil service test because it disadvantaged black firefighters. The white firefighters complained that race politics were involved.

The federal government has recently begun to crack down on laws regulating the amount of lead-based paint allowed in children’s clothing and toys.

Two-year-old Emily Jerry recently died because a hospital pharmacist gave her the wrong medication. The pharmacist had mixed her chemotherapy drugs with a saline solution with a salt content 26 times higher than it should have been. The parents of the young girl began a crusade to reform the Ohio laws regarding the credentials of pharmacy technicians.