McBratney Law Firm, P.A.

By: Claire N. Barnes, M.A.

1)Do everything in moderation, including alcohol, food, spending and new relationships. Holidays are a time when the media encourages us to overindulge in all aspects of our lives. The hangovers created by overdoing it will be regretted when 2013 begins.

2)Make adult decisions on how the holidays will be celebrated. Young children need not be asked, "Where do you want to be on Christmas day?" Leave those decisions for older youth when they have demonstrated real preferences.

3)Maintain some traditions while developing new ones. Unchanged holiday festivities are a great foundation on which to build new ones.

4)Remember that your children will mirror your reactions to the new experiences. The adults decided to make th...

By Martha Neil

A Minnesota attorney says he was scammed into depositing what he thought was a real cashier's check for nearly $300,000 from a legitimate collection matter into the trust account for his solo law practice.

Now Lawrence Marofsky is being sued by TCF Bank in federal court in Minneapolis, reports the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

He says he hopes to settle with the bank, but despite having malpractice coverage and some money "obviously, this hits hard," he tells the publication, warning other lawyers to watch out for similar fraud. "Make sure you find out that the check is in fact good, not from the bank you're dealing with, but from the original bank," he stated.

The article doesn't make clear exactly what happened concern...

Written by Tim Smith, Greenville Online

COLUMBIA - The director of the University of South Carolina's Center for Information Assurance says the massive records breach at the state Department of Revenue could have been prevented.

Csilla Farkas, director of the Center for Information Assurance, which helps train students in cyber security, said she knows no more about the breach at the state Department of Revenue than anyone else listening to publicly released information. But she said if a breach has occurred it is because of a lack of adequate safeguards.

"This attack, I would say, is a representative example when policies, procedures, existing technologies and awareness were not playing together to provide adequate security," Farkas told Gre...