When a couple decides that it is time to end their marriage they face many challenges, not the least of which is dividing the marital property. While there are exceptions, marital property is generally defined as property that is acquired after the date of marriage and before a spouse files for divorce. This can include a house, vehicles, bank accounts, debts, retirement funds and business interest. The division of marital property at times can be fairly straight forward and at other times very complex -- dividing a closely-held or family business is one of the most ...

Independent contractors are widely utilized in the construction business to help reduce costs and bring in valuable outside expertise. For employers, using independent contractors means employment tax savings and the avoidance of certain labor laws. But, problems arise when employers start calling regular employees "independent contractors." Misclassified workers miss out on a number of benefits, including workers' compensation rights, unemployment insurance, and the ability to collectively bargain. In the construction industry, misclassification of employees ...

The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused social disruption and psychological stress among Gulf residents that is similar to the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez spill and the impacts are likely to persist for years, a new study finds. "Just ask the residents of Cordova today whether they are over the Exxon Valdez," said study co-author Liesel Ritchie, assistant director for research of the University of Colorado Boulder's Natural Hazards Center. The Alaska community was considered "ground zero" for the 1989 oil spill. The research was a collaborative effort among Ritchie, ...

Homeowners facing foreclosure could see additional, although potentially short-term, relief from the Florida courts in the near future. Those with pending foreclosure actions that have not moved forward may see the case against them dismissed by the court because the bank has essentially abandoned the case or has not moved closer to concluding the action. Courts across the country are perpetually overwhelmed with cases; judges often struggle to keep their dockets moving along in a timely manner. To address the number of cases and to ensure that courts do not get bogged ...

In today's modern families it is common for fathers and mothers to both play active roles in the parenting of their children. When these marriages come to an end, one of the most troublesome problems is the issue of where the children will live. Illinois law provides two options to resolve custody disputes, namely Sole or Joint Custody. When applied traditionally either option unsatisfactorily results in the children residing primarily with one parent while the other parent exercises visitation and pays child support. The response to this problem in Illinois family ...

New Orleans, LA –In the first animal model of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), developed by Dr. Udai Pandey, Assistant Professor of Genetics at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, Dr. Pandey's lab has found in fruit flies that blocking the abnormal movement of a protein made by a mutated gene called FUS also blocks the disease process. The research is available online in the Advanced Access section of the journal Human Molecular Genetics website, posted on April 12, 2011. It will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal. The fruit flies were engineered ...

Chicago's streets are home to almost 400 red light cameras that monitor 190 of the city's most dangerous intersections. The program began in 2003, when the city installed cameras at two intersections: 55th and Western, and Peterson and Western. Since then, the city has issued millions of violations--763,419 in 2010 alone--and made millions of dollars in revenue from the red light cameras. The cameras are connected to the intersection's traffic lights. When the light turns red, any vehicle that passes under the sensor get its picture taken and is recorded on a video device. ...

Stanford researchers have developed a new biosensor microchip that could significantly speed up the process of drug development. The microchips, packed with highly sensitive "nanosensors," analyze how proteins bind to one another, a critical step for evaluating the effectiveness and possible side effects of a potential medication. A single centimeter-sized array of the nanosensors can simultaneously and continuously monitor thousands of times more protein-binding events than any existing sensor. The new sensor is also able to detect interactions with greater sensitivity ...

New York has closely followed Wisconsin's political battle concerning the power of labor unions -- with good reason. Wisconsin has long been at the nation's forefront in unionization and employment reform. In fact, "The Dairy State" was the first state to enact a workers' compensation law when Gov. Francis E. McGovern signed its passage 100 years ago, in 1911. Because of Wisconsin's storied tradition of progressively establishing workers' rights, New York is keeping close tabs on how the partisan conflict plays out. Often seen as the workers' rights benchmark, ...

PHILADELPHIA—Minimizing neurological side effects in patients with high-grade glioma from chemoradiation may result in improved patient survival, a new study from radiation oncologists at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson suggests. These findings were reported in the April issue of the British Journal of Cancer. The researchers found that the occurrence of early side effects, such as fatigue and loss of short-term memory, that manifest during or soon after treatment is significantly associated with both late side effects (after 90 days) and overall survival in patients ...

Steve Urbansky aspires to be Lorain, Ohio's newest grounds crew member. The 46-year-old ran his Kia hatchback into a snow bank on the 13th of February. When the police arrived on the scene, Urbansky explained that he was "just trying to mow the sidewalk." Urbansky then failed a field sobriety test and confessed to drinking at home before he got behind the wheel. Police then found an opened can of beer in Urbansky's glove compartment. Urbansky, who has two prior DUI convictions (in 1997 and 1999), was charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated, failure ...

WASHINGTON, April 19—Invisibility cloaks are seemingly futuristic devices capable of concealing very small objects by bending and channeling light around them. Until now, however, cloaking techniques have come with a significant limitation—they need to be orders of magnitude larger than the object being cloaked. This places serious constraints on practical applications, particularly for the optoelectronics industry, where size is a premium and any cloaking device would need to be both tiny and delicate. An international team of physicists from the Technical University ...

Atlanta carpet and flooring company, Glover's Flooring America, will celebrate its 80th year of business in 2011. Glover's is a family-owned Atlanta flooring company offering huge selections of carpet, hardwood floors, tile, laminate, vinyl and area rugs. With eight decades of experience, Glover's is strengthened by a knowledgeable and passionate design staff that works with interior designers, contractors and homeowners to satisfy every customer's flooring need. "We pride ourselves on providing the highest quality flooring and a staff that can understand and ...

Right-handedness is a distinctively human characteristic, with right-handers outnumbering lefties nine-to-one. But how far back does right-handedness reach in the human story? Researchers have tried to determine the answer by looking at ancient tools, prehistoric art and human bones, but the results have not been definitive. Now, David Frayer, professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas, has used markings on fossilized front teeth to show that right-handedness goes back more than 500,000 years. He is the lead author (with colleagues in Croatia, Italy and Spain) ...

The National Trust is supporting the Plant and Protect campaign which has been launched by Copella. As English apple growth declines, new independent research has highlighted how out of touch with their heritage varieties Britons are. The study of over 1,000* Britons commissioned by apple juice experts, Copella, has revealed that over three quarters of the population (76%) think that the Granny Smith is an English variety - when in fact, it's Australian. The study also revealed that only 11% of Britons are able to identify English apple varieties from a list of names ...

Athens, Ga. – Dog owners and veterinarians have long relied on a mix of limited data and anecdotal evidence to assess which breeds are at risk of dying from various conditions, but a new University of Georgia study provides a rare and comprehensive look at causes of death in more than 80 breeds. The study, published in the current edition of the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, can be used to create breed-specific health maintenance programs and is a starting point for future studies that will explore the genetic underpinnings of disease in dogs. "If we can ...

The National Trust has revealed a 'lost' maze in the gardens at Cliveden in Buckinghamshire that disappeared for over half a century and has now been re-created using over 1,000 two metre (six feet six inches) high yew trees. The fully-fledged maze is based on one that was built for Lord Astor in 1894 but had ceased to be maintained since the mid-1900s. The new maze, a horticultural project on a scale rarely seen these days, has taken two years to create, using over 1,000 metres of steel edging and 120 tonnes of gravel to produce 500 metres of path over one third ...

Research shows that a walk in the park is more than just a nice way to spend an afternoon. It's an essential component for good health, according to University of Illinois environment and behavior researcher Frances "Ming" Kuo. "Through the decades, parks advocates, landscape architects, and popular writers have consistently claimed that nature had healing powers," Kuo said. "But until recently, their claims haven't undergone rigorous scientific assessment." Kuo is also the director of the Landscape and Human Health Laboratory at the U of I and has studied the effect ...

easyJet Holidays, has announced the launch of the 'How Flexible Are You?' competition on its holiday offering's blog. This easyJet Holidays alliance which was established following a collaboration between easyJet and the Lowcosttravelgroup, provides customers with the choice and flexibility to enable them to tailor their holidays and city breaks to travel when they want, to wherever they want, for as long as they want. In light of this, and the recent heroics from the contortionist Rubber Richie, who managed to squeeze himself into a suitcase in London, the team has ...

Ernest Jones has launched a Facebook page allowing the high street jewellery brand to create a more interactive and personal relationship with its customers. By offering exclusive Facebook competitions and up to the minute trend stories that are not on the current website, Ernest Jones is allowing consumers into an exclusive group. In return Ernest Jones will incentivise consumers with competitions to share their comments and ultimately improve the relationship between retailer and consumer. The current Ernest Jones retail website features seasonal promotions such as ...

Botrytis bunch rot, a disease caused by the fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea, can devastate grape vineyards. Yet other plants can repel the invader and protect themselves by mounting a form of chemical warfare against the fungi through the production of antimicrobial substances, called phytoalexins. Scientists at the University of Missouri report on a discovery in a key component in the signaling pathway that regulates the production of phytoalexins to kill the disease-causing fungus Botrytis cinerea. "When the mustard plant Arabidopsis detects the fungus Botrytis ...

Montreal April 19, 2011 – Lapses in memory occur more frequently with age, yet the reasons for this increasing forgetfulness have not always been clear. According to new research from Concordia University, older individuals have reduced learning and memory because their minds tend to be cluttered with irrelevant information when performing tasks. Published in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, these findings offer new insights into why ageing is associated with a decline in memory and may lead to practical solutions. "The first step of our study was to ...

As of April 15, 2011 Pokerstars has shut down to US players. They are still in full operation for non-US players at their Pokerstars.eu domain. However, if you attempt to visit their .com domain you will find a US DOJ and FBI seal along with a message regarding the seizure of the pokerstars.com domain. Regarding the recent events, Pokerstars has released the following statement: "We are reaching out to you in light of the recent developments in relation to our US business, following which PokerStars does not offer its services to US residents. Please note that ...

College Park, MD (April 19, 2011) -- Using well-known patterned media, a team of researchers in France has figured out a way to double the areal density of information by essentially cutting the magnetic media into small pieces and building a "3D tower" out of it. This greatly enhances the amount of data that can be stored in a magnetic storage device and provides a method to reach beyond a wall of physical limits that the currently used technology is hitting. The team presents their findings in the American Institute of Physics' Journal of Applied Physics. "Over the ...

ZyLAB, a leading eDiscovery and information management technology company today announced the release of its state-of-the-art ZyLAB Audio Search Bundle, a desktop software product used to quickly identify relevant audio clips from multimedia files and from ubiquitous business tools such as fixed-line telephone, VOIP, mobile, and specialist platforms like Skype or MSN Live. The intuitive software enables technical and non-technical users involved in legal disputes, forensics, law enforcement, and lawful data interception to search, review and analyze audio data with the ...