Legal
RMN dispatches tagged Legal.
The Temporary Seawalls That Never Leave: Are We Protecting Shore Homes at the Expense of the Beach?
Reported Feature
Surfrider’s 2026 report raises a question for coastal communities: when emergency barriers become permanent, what happens to the public beach?
When Did a Basic Necessity Become Something States Could Tax Differently?
Reported Feature
Rutgers Law students are helping challenge Kentucky’s menstrual-products sales tax, raising a bigger question about what governments consider essential.
The AI Got the Words Right. It Just Couldn’t Tell Who Said Them.
Technology
New research into police body-camera transcripts reveals how a convincing written record can misrepresent an encounter—even when much of its language is accurate.
The Dispensary Doesn't Want to Be a Store Anymore
Reported Feature
Collective Beleaf's Great Beleaf Fall Fest points toward a broader shift in New Jersey cannabis retail, where the next phase of normalization may be less about what happens at the register and more about what kind of place a dispensary becomes in its community.
That Charming Pond Behind Your New Jersey House Might Come With a Dam
Reported Feature
A new state disclosure requirement is forcing an unusually specific part of homeownership into the open: the pretty embankment beside the water may actually be regulated infrastructure, and the person buying the house may be buying the responsibility for it too.
We're Not Afraid to Talk About Death. We're Afraid to Ruin a Nice Day.
Reported Feature
A new survey of 5,000 Americans finds inheritance conversations feel more awkward at birthdays than funerals - and that waiting for the 'right' moment may be exactly the problem.
We Said Kids Needed More Independence. Then They Got E-Bikes.
Reported Feature
Electric bikes are giving teenagers a transportation network years before a driver’s license. New Jersey is now confronting the awkward part: independence is easier to praise in theory than to manage at 20 miles per hour.
At Some Point, TikTok Became Part of the Courtroom
Reported Feature
A new Alcatraz East exhibit about criminal-defense attorney and TikTok creator Stephanie Giancristofaro captures a larger shift in crime coverage: legal expertise, journalism, commentary, personality and speculation now arrive beside one another in the same feed.
The Dog Dug Under the Fence. The Humans Did the Rest.
Reported Feature
New Jersey Repertory Company’s Nacho Ate Superman starts with a missing pedigreed rabbit, a rescue dog and a hole beneath a fence. Then the people arrive and turn an animal incident into something much more recognizably human.
You Thought You Were Taking a Selfie. The Law May Call What Happened Next Biometric Data.
Reported Feature
A new court-authorized Skin360 settlement notice shows how easily a casual consumer interaction can become a legally significant data transaction.
They Put Coupon Fraud on a Subscription Plan
Reported Feature
A Texas woman was sentenced in Newark federal court after prosecutors said a paid online group gave members unlimited access to counterfeit coupons that produced more than $17.8 million in unauthorized discounts. The fraud was old-fashioned. The delivery model was thoroughly modern.
New Jersey Joins FTC Challenge to Amazon’s Advertising Auction System
Reported Feature
Regulators say undisclosed reserve pricing changed what advertisers were paying. Amazon says the case misunderstands how its ad marketplace works and ignores performance gains for advertisers and shoppers.
When the Audience Joins the Investigation
Culture
True crime used to turn criminal cases into stories. Podcasts, forums, searchable archives and social platforms turned the audience into participants. The result can revive a cold case, identify a person who lost their name, or create a second injustice before police ever reach the first.
The Sandwich Has Acquired Counsel
Culture
Smucker spent decades turning a crustless PB&J into a recognizable industrial product. Now a federal court is being asked where sandwich architecture ends and brand identity begins.