| Volume 115 Number 2 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
Are you having a problem getting your wages from your employer? If so, the Texas Payday Law might help. The Texas Workforce Commission has a process to help you claim your wages. Click here for more.
Entrepreneur Raises $9 Million in Kickstarter Campaign
An MBA student with an idea for a "travel" jacket for frequent flyers sought just $20,000 to develop his idea but has already received over $9 Million in one of the crowd funding website Kickstarter's most successful campaigns. The jacket will include an inflatable neck pillow, an eye mask, and a phone charger pocket. He has received orders on the website for 70,000 of the jackets priced between $89 and $120, has contracted with manufacturers to produce them, and hopes to begin shipping by the Fall. Click here for more.
Your Money
Planning on driving over Labor Day Weekend? If so, you may notice the lowest gas prices in eleven years. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Google Earth satellite image and a digital “tack” labeled with GPS coordinates are not hearsay. In a criminal case where the location of the defendant was relevant to the charge, the Ninth Circuit applied well worn rules of evidence to the Internet age in finding that a Google Earth image did not make an “assertion” and therefore was not hearsay. The image also had a digital “tack” labeling a point on the image with GPS coordinates, which the court conceded was an “assertion.” The court concluded however, that because the tack on the image was generated by a computer program, and not a “person,” it was not hearsay under established law. United States v. Lizarraga-Tirado, No. 13-10530, 2015 WL 3772772 (9th Cir. June 18, 2015). Click here for more.